Blair: London officers need more power to win crime war

POLICE forces need more power, not more resources, if they are to win the war on crime, Tony Blair has said.

The former prime minister contradicted Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, who has claimed the rise in moped gangs and knife violence in the capital is down to funding cuts.

Writing in the London Evening Standard, Mr Blair called for a “sharp change of direction” by both the Prime Minister and the mayor.

Mr Blair said: “Those criminals who drive around the capital on mopeds, mugging people, dealing drugs and using knives and guns must know that there is a different spirit, one that will not tolerate this lawlessness and is determined to break it.”

He rejected calls for extra money, adding the problem must be solved using “the resources presently available”.

But he called for more powers for the police, including civil injunctions, to help disrupt gang activity, warning that, unless action is taken, the public will lose faith in authorities.

His call came as it emerged yesterday that police are using child spies to infiltrate “county lines” groups, to prevent them from smuggling drugs and taking advantage of vulnerable teenagers.

Mr Blair, who coined the phrase “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”, also said Theresa May’s decision to cut stop and search was a “serious mistake”.

He added: “If gangs operate with impunity, criminals believe they can get away with it and the police feel powerless even to keep a lid on it. The signal received will encourage all types of criminality to proliferate. People will become anxious, and crime, barely an issue in the 2015 or 2017 elections, will once again dominate, as it used to do 25 years ago.”