David Cameron and Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, today joined Joanne Cash, Mehfuz Ahmed, Church Street’s first ever Conservative Councillor, and police officers from Paddington Green Police Station to discuss crime and disorder in the local area.
The visit took place just hours before Chris Grayling gave his first major speech as Shadow Home Secretary at the Greater London Assembly, outlining measures to tackle youth crime and anti-social behaviour.
In his speech, Mr Grayling described how a Conservative Government would not only get to grips with the root causes of a broken society but would also be unashamedly tough whenever a crime is committed.
The Shadow Home Secretary highlighted four immediate priorities that a Conservative Government would address:
- Empowering the police to remove young troublemakers from the streets and confine them to their homes outside of school hours.
- Providing quick, simple powers to ensure retailers who systematically break licensing laws are closed down permanently.
- Ending the culture of issuing cautions and making sure serious offences are treated as such.
- Making sure more of our police officers are free to spend more time on the streets by removing the barriers which Labour has put up and which prevent the police from doing their job properly.
Joanne welcomed the proposals:
“I work closely with Westminster’s Conservative Council and our local police officers to make residents in Westminster North feel safe and protected in their homes and on our streets.
However, there is only so much we can do whilst this Government continues to wrap our police force in red-tape and bureaucracy.
David Cameron and Chris Grayling took the time to visit Westminster North today to demonstrate that life under a Conservative Government would be different – things are going to change.”
The Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, explained why his Party’s new measures are so important:
“Crime may not be in the headlines so much today but that doesn’t mean it’s gone away. Remember that it’s not just the National Debt that has doubled under Labour, but violent crime too.
Every since I was elected Conservative leader, I have tried to address this issue in a serious and substantive way. We have not gone for the cheap, superficial and simplistic soundbite politics of Labour.
If we win the next election, I want a loud and clear message to be heard by every kid who’s getting into trouble and every kid who’s thinking about it. It’s the Conservatives you’re dealing with now. You’re not going to get away with it anymore.”
