Labour conference: Party promises to bring back neighbourhood policing - BBC News
The shadow home secretary says Labour will "tackle anti-social behaviour" if the party wins power.
Labour says it will "bring back neighbourhood policing" in England and Wales if it wins the next election.

In a speech to Labour's conference, shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds promised to "tackle the epidemic of anti-social behaviour".

And he said the Tories were "soft on crime and soft on the causes of crime".

Labour says it will scrap the government's £200m "national yacht" - which it calls a "vanity project" - to pay for the policy.

The proposals include a roll-out of police hubs in communities and a recruitment drive for special constables.

At the conference being held in Brighton, shadow education secretary Kate Green has unveil Labour's Covid recovery plan for children.

The party wants to extend the school day for new activities, such as art and sport, as well as small group tutoring and mental health support.

In her speech on Tuesday, Ms Green challenged new Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi to deliver a "recovery guarantee" that ensures every child "thrives on new opportunities to learn, play and develop - just as Labour's plan would enable them to do".

Other policy promises being unveiled at conference included the doubling the current spending on dementia research to £160m and making city firms provide at least 35 hours of free legal services - known as pro bono work - per lawyer per year.

Unveiling its proposals on combating crime, the party is pointing to figures from the Office for National Statistics, which say the number of people claiming they never see a police officer on foot patrol has doubled since 2010.

And Home Office data shows the number of special constables - volunteer officers who support police on the frontline - have fallen by 6,300 in the same timeframe.

Mr Thomas-Symonds told conference: "With me as home secretary, if there is trouble on your street, Labour will make sure that someone is there.

"You will see officers on the beat."

He also promised a national rollout of police hubs, giving a place for the public to talk to their local force and other agencies about concerns in the area.

Each hub will have a Neighbourhood Prevention Team, made up of police, community support officers, youth workers and local authority staff.

And their aim will be to increase police presence in communities and ensure crime - especially anti-social behaviour - is tackled quickly.

Other policies include a major recruitment drive to increase the number of special constables and a new Child Exploitation Register for those convicted of modern slavery offences linked to county lines drug dealing.

Mr Thomas-Symonds (left) is hoping to be home secretary if Labour and its leader Sir Keir Starmer (centre) win the next election

Mr Thomas-Symonds also used the speech to attack the current government's performance on tackling crime.

"In Tory Britain, people say you never see police on the beat any more," he said.

"That school children feel afraid at the bus stop, that people feel unsafe going out after dark, this is the price of years of Tory cuts to neighbourhood policing.

"The Conservatives are the party of crime and disorder. They are soft on crime and soft on the causes of crime."

But Tory chairman Oliver Dowden said it was Labour who had "shown time and time again that they are weak on crime and weak on the causes of crime".

He added: "Only the Conservatives are getting on with the job of keeping the British people safe: by recruiting 20,000 more officers, boosting police funding to record levels, and introducing tougher sentences for child murderers, drink drivers, and those convicted of serious violent and sexual offences."

Earlier this year, Boris Johnson also pledged to target crime and anti-social behaviour by introducing electronic tags for burglars after leaving prison and ensuring every neighbourhood in England and Wales had a named police officer for residents to contact.