Labour will begin the hard work to make our streets safer from day one

“There’s just no respect anymore.” Those were the words of a businesswoman I spoke to in North Wales. Like so many, she was deeply frustrated about crime and antisocial behaviour in her town centre, and the lack of local police to help turn it round.

As millions cast their vote in the election, the choice is clear – more of the same chaos and decline with the Conservative Government, or change with Labour. The Conservatives’ record on law and order is grim. Ninety per cent of crimes go unsolved. Arrests have halved since 2010. Despite ministers’ promises to reverse their own police cuts, there are 10,000 fewer neighbourhood police on the streets.

Chaos in the criminal justice system – including long court delays and the failure to build promised prisons – is making things worse. After 14 years of Conservative government, more criminals are being let off and more victims are being badly let down.

Crimes that hit at the heart of local communities have increased sharply in the past two years but the Government is showing no leadership. Town centre criminal damage has risen. Street crime has shot up and mobile phone snatch thefts have nearly doubled in a year. Shoplifting has soared. Yet shopworkers say that nothing is done.

Serious violence has risen, too, with knife crime up by 80 per cent in seven years. Some young people talk about carrying a knife in the same way as carrying a phone. Three years after the murder of Sarah Everard, which should have been a watershed moment, we’ve seen little progress on tackling violence against women and girls.

This can’t go on. If the Conservatives are rewarded at the ballot box, nothing will change.

Labour is determined to put law and order at the heart of what we do. We will start by rebuilding neighbourhood policing with our community policing guarantee, putting 13,000 neighbourhood officers and PCSOs back on Britain’s streets and a named officer for every community. We’ve set out a fully-funded plan based on the work of the independent Police Foundation to save up to £400 million on wasteful contracts and duplication across 43 police forces, putting money back into the front line. We will work with neighbourhood police to curb antisocial behaviour, with powers to tackle off-road bikes and town centre crime.

Tackling knife crime must become a mission, not just for the government but for us all. That means laws to stop dangerous weapons being sold online, including sanctions for tech executives who don’t comply. We will set up a bold Young Futures programme to prevent young people being drawn into crime, with 100 youth hubs and youth mentors in A&E, custody suites and pupil referral units. Time once again to be tough on crime and tough on its causes.

Nor can we tolerate the persistent violence against women and girls where too little is done to stop domestic abuse or to bring sex offenders to justice. Labour will put rape and domestic abuse specialists in every police force. And we will act to drive up police standards.

Safety on our streets matters too much to continue with the drift and incompetence the Conservative Government embodies. If Labour is elected, the hard work to rebuild respect, to restore law and order and to make people feel safe on our streets again will begin on day one of a new government.