THE Tories claim to be the party of law and order. But their ferocious cuts to police and the rise in serious violent crime say otherwise.  

In reality, it means draconian measures against trade unions, against campaigners and against Muslims and young black men. But everyone else can go whistle if they want to see a bobby on the beat, or a burglary investigated, or a rapist prosecuted.

That’s why Labour once again this week prioritised a focus on policing and crime and highlighted the consequences of the cuts by the Tories over the last decade.

There are two key reasons why it is vital we keep drawing attention to this issue. 

The first is that every government has its first duty to defend the safety and security of its citizens.  

Of course, this does not mean there will be no crime. What it does mean is that every government should make its best endeavours to ensure that safety and security are prioritised, wherever the government sits on the political spectrum.  

Instead this Tory government tried to ensure safety and security on the cheap. Due to its ideologically driven commitment to austerity, it has failed in its fundamental duty.   

The second reason that we need to keep holding the government to account is that the Tories decided that their policing pledge was crucial in the election.  

The Tory manifesto used the word “police” a couple of dozen times. Not as many times as “Brexit,” but enough to suggest that policing was the second plank of its platform.  

While the Tories are currently boasting about how many police they are going to recruit, there is justifiable doubt over whether they will be able to get their central pledge to recruit 20,000 extra police done, in particular due to the poor start they have made on police funding.

In their recent announcement about police funding, Home Office ministers claimed that “this is the biggest funding settlement for a decade.” 

Since they have been in power since 2010, all this tells us is that this settlement is better than all the preceding cuts they have been responsible for.

Since 2010, the Tories have cut more than 20,000 police officers, but even this is not the full story.  

Alongside this, they also cut thousands of police community support officers and police civilian support staff.  

PCSOs are vital in maintaining police-community links and helping with low-level policing. Fewer support staff means police also doing more of their own clerical and admin work. This is not “pen-pushing” but vital work, for example in preparing a case for court.  

There are no government plans in the pipeline to restore either the numbers of PCSOs or admin staff, meaning that police officers will still be burdened with non-police or non-crime-fighting work.  

When Labour left office in 2010, police officer strength was at a record high and there was a long-term downtrend in total crime. The austerity policy wrecked that legacy.

It is also clear that the Tory cuts have had a direct effect on levels of crime. In its most recent publication on crime, the Office for National Statistics states: “Following a long-term reduction, levels of crime have remained broadly stable in recent years.”

Overall well over 10 million crimes were committed in the latest 12 months, with a 7 per cent rise in offences involving knives or sharp instruments recorded by the police. This is the highest on record and 46 per cent higher than in 2011, when records began. 

But the Tories’ record is even worse when it comes to apprehending criminals. The Home Office’s own data shows that just one in 14 crimes leads to a charge or summons. This means that while crime has risen, the charge rate for crime has fallen.  

To give one example, the charge rate for rape is just 1.4 per cent. This is an appalling indictment of their policy.

The government’s current response is to talk tough on crime, to talk about draconian measures and to criminalise law-abiding citizens upholding their rights, such as trade unionists and campaigners.

You don’t tackle crime by criminalising lawful activity. You also don’t tackle it through ever-longer sentencing, where inexperienced first-time offenders become hard cases or drug addicts in prison.  

And you don’t tackle crime when you’ve cut the police so much you can’t catch the criminals in the first place.

In contrast to the Tories, Labour is not only for greater police numbers, but also understands that increased policing is not enough.  

As many senior police officers have told me during my time as shadow home secretary: “You can’t arrest your way out of a crime problem.”

Instead, it’s necessary to take an integrated approach. This means more and better policing, addressing crime as a public health issue, drawing in all public services plus resourcing and funding them properly.

Labour will continue to hold the Tories to account on this issue because the public deserve much better than they have had in the last 10 years. 

We repeatedly warned that cuts have consequences, and the Tories must be made to take responsibility for the disastrous consequences of their cuts.