Knife crime up as cops slashed

Last week it was revealed crime had risen at its highest rate for a decade, with particularly big increases in gun violence and knife crime.

For my constituents, it came as no surprise. From moped phone snatches to teenage stab victims, they don’t need official statistics to tell them crime is getting worse.

But there’s one statistic that does need attention, also slipped out by the Government on the last day of Parliament. It showed that the number of police officers is now at its lowest level since 1985, down more than 20,000 since the Tories came to power.

And when you take police off the streets in such vast numbers, that not only increases people’s fear of crime, it removes any deterrent to the gangs who prey on those streets. And then crime rises as a result? No sh*t, Sherlock.