𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The Tories on Tuesday vowed to hire another 10,000 police officers to crack down on crime.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp promised to “catch more criminals” and bolster patrols in hotspot areas.

He stressed police chiefs must order “intense patrolling” to prevent crimes and improve public safety.

Mr Philp said in his Conservative Party Conference: “We left office with record ever police numbers – nearly 150,000 in March 2024. Under Labour these numbers are already going down – while shoplifting has surged 20 per cent to a record high and overall crime went up 7% in Labour’s first year.

“We need to turn this around. So, we commit today to hiring 10,000 extra police officers at a cost of £800 million per year. They will catch more criminals and they will protect our streets. That is our commitment. We will keep our country safe.

“We will use some of these extra officers to deliver hotspot policing in 2,000 neighbourhoods. This will deliver 8 million hours a year of hotspot patrolling and prevent 35,000 crimes.

“Every area where there is a serious crime problem should have intensive patrolling, all year round. Visible, intense patrolling to deter crime and catch criminals. All the evidence shows that this works. So, we will mandate it.”

Mr Philp also vowed that the Conservatives will triple stop and search if elected by allowing it to be carried out without suspicion in crime hotspot areas.

He said: “It’s insane that the smell of cannabis alone, or somebody wearing a menacing mask alone, does not generally allow, legally, a stop and search.

“Now in my view, a single suspicion indicator should be enough. So, in our hotspot areas, we will allow routine stop and search without suspicion. Anyone can be searched.

“We will change the law to do this, and we will triple the use of stop and search. Lives will be saved and knives will be taken off our streets. We have the courage to do that, Labour does not.”

And the Tories have vowed to scrap non-crime hate incidents.

Mr Philp said: “It is time to end the madness of police showing up on someone’s doorstep because they have offended someone online – the police should catch real criminals, not off-colour tweets. Policing non-criminal social media posts is a catastrophic waste of time, and it tramples on free speech.

“In government, we would end this nonsense, and we will abolish non-crime hate incidents. So you can tweet away.”