"Labour is the party of law and order", Starmer says as election looms

The Conservatives have also been keen to pledge robust responses to tackle anti-social behaviour, with both seeing it as a key issue in voters’ minds ahead of local elections across England on Thursday, May 4.

Speaking during a visit to Burnley College in East Lancashire yesterday, Sir Keir accused the Government of treating antisocial behaviour as a “low-level” problem.

He said: “The Government sometimes likes to pretend that it doesn’t really exist or it doesn’t really impact on people. I profoundly disagree.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week announced a set of measures to crack down on antisocial behaviour, including a laughing gas ban, trials of swifter justice measures and increased policing in areas deemed to have high amounts of anti-social behaviour.

But Sir Keir said the Government had not gone far enough.

“Talk to people anywhere, Burnley or anywhere across the country, and they would say after 13 years we’re in a position where anti-social behaviour still hasn’t been dealt with.

“They’re pretty fed up with the Government and they don’t think that the measures the Government’s put in place are making any difference.”

Sir Keir repeated Labour’s promise to put 13,000 police and community support officers in neighbourhood roles “so they know their patch, they can deal with the preventative stuff, but also enforcement”.

But the Government’s policing minister Chris Philp described Labour’s plan as “weak” and “the latest evidence (Labour) are soft on crime and soft on criminals”.

Yesterday, the party also criticised what it called a “postcode lottery” in Yorkshire over the Unduly Lenient Sentences Scheme, after new analysis showed stark differences in regional outcomes.

Of all the sentences from the start of 2020 to the end of 2022, 2,886 were submitted to the Attorney General, of which 1,912 were considered eligible for consideration and 386 (20.2 per cent) were referred to the Appeal Court for review. However, there were sharp variations from that national average.

At one end of the spectrum, there were referral rates close to one in four for cases from Leeds Crown Court (25.3 per cent) and Bradford Crown Court (26.35). But at the other end, there was a referral rate of 10.8 per cent for cases from Sheffield Crown Court, and – of the 27 cases submitted from Hull Crown Court and the five from York Crown Court – not a single one was referred.

Labour’s Shadow Attorney General, Emily Thornberry, said: “For so many victims or their families, this scheme offers the last hope of justice.

“But instead of responding to that public concern, the proportion of cases referred to the Court of Appeal has fallen sharply across the country in recent years, and in cities like Sheffield, Hull and York, the referral rates are so low, the scheme might as well not exist at all.

“It just shows that the Tories are missing in action in the fight against crime, letting criminals off, and letting victims down. That will all change under Labour. We are the party of law and order, and the next Labour government will prevent crime, punish criminals and protect every community.”