Yahoo News Tories have lowest ever trust on crime as Britain's knife crime crisis continues
Trust in the Tories as the party of law and order has hit an all time low, a survey claims.
According to a YouGov poll, reported in the Times, only one in four people thinks that the Conservative Party is the best for dealing with crime, the lowest proportion recorded by YouGov in the 14 years that it has been asking the question.
Concern about crime has risen sharply in the past month, overtaking the NHS to become the most significant issue for voters apart from Brexit. There have been 100 killings in the UK already in 2019, including 41 stabbings.
Theresa May’s record as a cost-cutting home secretary has been severely criticised, including her decision to scale back stop and search and accusing the police of “crying wolf” when they complained of falling officer numbers.
Last week the prime minister caused controversy by claiming that there was “no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers”.
Dame Louise Casey, a former Home Office adviser and victims’ commissioner, has told the prime minister: “To be in denial about the effect of the austerity agenda shows political weakness.”
Dame Louise, a visiting professor at King’s College London, used an article for The Times’s Red Box today to say that cuts mean that “much of the ‘glue’ that used to exist in poorer areas has gone, from Surestart and parenting programmes to youth clubs. We are no longer tough on crime or tough on its causes”.
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The YouGov poll for The Times shows that 26 per cent of people think that the Tories are the best party on law and order, down from 33 per cent in early January. Despite mounting a strong attack on police cuts and knife crime, Labour does not seem to have benefited, however. Only 18 per cent of people think it is best on law and order.
Overall 40 per cent of people would vote for the Conservatives in an election, with Labour on 31 per cent, the Lib Dems 11 and others 18.
This week police forces across the country are running Operation Sceptre, which targets knife crime.
