The Conservatives were accused of “defunding the police” through a decade of cuts in a speech on Tuesday by the shadow home secretary which aimed to reposition Labour as the party of law and order. Nick Thomas-Symonds told delegates at the party’s annual conference that he would not follow demands, usually attributed to the Black Lives Matter movement, to take money away from existing police forces. But he said that successive Tory governments have cut cash payments to forces for more than 10 years. “No Labour home secretary will ever defund the police. That’s not our party, that’s the Tory party, and they have spent 10 years defunding our police,” he told delegates in Brighton. Black Lives Matter UK has said its use of “defund the police” means investing in programmes that “actually keep us safe like youth services, mental health and social care, education, jobs and housing”. After welcoming a representative of the Police Federation, the organisation which speaks for rank-and-file officers, Thomas-Symonds also accused the home secretary, Priti Patel, of failing to deliver. “The safety of our communities is at risk from this government. The reality is that the Conservatives have failed on crime. “This home secretary likes to talks tough but she never delivers. She says she backs our frontline police officers and staff, but then insults them with a pay freeze. “It’s no surprise that she has lost the confidence of 130,000 rank-and-file officers represented by the Police Federation, who are the undisputed voice of policing. “The Conservatives are the party of crime and disorder. They are soft on crime and soft on the causes of crime,” he said.
In a direct challenge to Boris Johnson’s claim that the Conservatives remain the party of law and order, he said: “Conference, we can never again allow the Tories to call themselves the party of law and order.” Thomas-Symonds pledged to “bring back neighbourhood policing” with a plan to boost the “eyes, ears and boots on the ground” and a major recruitment drive for volunteer officers. He set out a vision for a national rollout of “police hubs” with their own neighbourhood crime prevention teams to crack down on antisocial behaviour. A “next generation neighbourhood watch” using technology including video doorbells and WhatsApp groups would be tasked with bringing people together to share information to tackle crime. In the first year of a Labour government, the party said it would recruit 5,000 special constables, which it said was a doubling of last year’s level. Labour also set out plans for a new child exploitation register which would see those convicted of modern slavery offences linked to county lines drug dealing added to a list similar to the sex offenders register. Sources close to Patel claimed Thomas-Symonds had voted against moves by the government to increase funding for the police.