Jack Dromey MP, Labour’s Shadow Policing Minister, responding to Theresa May’s speech today, said:

“This speech shows Theresa May is living in a fantasy world and sounds more like empty rhetoric than a proper action plan.

“The Tories are complacent on crime, neglecting neighbourhood policing while reported incidents of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault and child sex offences have gone up, but the number of cases reaching court has gone down.

“Police and Crime Commissioners – seen as her flagship reform – have been roundly rejected by the public with only 10 per cent voting in the recent by election in the West Midlands.

“It is right that the Home Office should do more to cut crime but the Tories have no answers to the explosion of new types of crime, such as fraud and online child abuse.

“Labour cut crime by over 40 per cent and pioneered neighbourhood policing – eroded by Theresa May. Last year the figures show a rise in violent crime with 7,000 more offences but 7,000 fewer convictions than the year before. That’s more criminals getting away with it.”