Keir Starmer visited Staffordshire to lay out Labour’s stance on crime.
I was honoured to be invited to be in the audience as first, Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary set out some of the shocking crime figures, particularly figures relating to rape and sexual violence against women and girls: a truly appalling figure of 1.3% of rape cases are prosecuted and yet around 300 women in this country are raped every day, every single day.
How on earth did we, as a supposedly civilised country, get here?
The simple answer is 13 years of Tory Government. Their choice to cut public services while giving tax breaks to the rich isn’t without consequences for police, health services, education, youth provision, early support interventions and much more.
Keir set out clearly and confidently his four goals to make Britain safer:
- restoring public confidence in every police force
- halving the incidents of knife crime,
- reversing the downward trend in the proportion of crimes solved and
- halving the levels of violence against women and girls.
Straightforward, but by no means easy to achieve. What he did show, however, was his absolute determination to focus on crime.
Fighting crime is a Labour cause
As he said, “Fighting crime is a Labour cause,” because it is ordinary hardworking families who suffer most from what some call low-level crime – and he dismissed that term completely saying:
“Whatever the crime: anti-social behaviour, hate crime, serious violence, it’s always working people who pay the heaviest price. Working class communities who have to live under its shadow. That’s why tackling crime – law and order – will always be so important for my Labour Party.”
One particular comment resonated with me. Keir said, “Cleaner streets make safer streets.” It’s called the broken windows theory where visible signs of decay, vandalism and even the smell of cannabis depresses people’s pride in their area, giving the impression that no-one cares.
Labour does care, and in Burntwood and across the District we have worked hard to ensure we grow civic pride through caring for our communities.
The Burntwood Response and Repair Team, BuRRT,
Introduced by Labour-controlled Burntwood Town Council is a case in point. If we wait for the District or County Councils to carry out minor repair jobs, we’ll wait for a very long time. It’s the same with CCTV in The Dimbles, lobbied for by Labour Councillors (though let down in part by Conservatives at Lichfield District Council).
Both the timing and the venue for this important announcement were significant. It came the day after Dame Louise Casey’s damning report on the Metropolitan Police was published. And it was made in a County where our Police Force is in special measures. The effect on police morale is devastating and yet the Home Secretary and the Conservative Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner here fail to act or take any responsibility. They also completely fail to acknowledge that their years of economic decline and austerity cuts have anything to do with the current state of policing here.
Staffordshire has seen one of the biggest drops in police officer numbers since 2010 in the whole of England and Wales, from 2161 to 1595 last September. As in other public services, police officers are asked to do more and more with fewer and fewer people.
That’s where confidence, both within the police and among the general public, starts to break down. Labour will reverse those trends and Keir was in bullish mood about this subject, motivated by his experience and so close to his heart.
Author: Sue Woodward
