The Labour party is indulging in “cheap politics” by accusing the Conservatives repeatedly of being soft on crime, the head of a leading prison reform charity has claimed.
Andrea Coomber QC, the chief executive of the Howard League, said the opposition is trying to outflank Boris Johnson’s government on law and order instead of developing evidence-based policies to solve a crisis within the criminal justice system.
“We don’t yet know what the opposition’s policies on prisons or criminal justice are, but the mood music is all ‘tough on crime’, not caring about the criminals or addressing the victims of crimes. That does not necessarily provide the opposition that the government needs,” she said in an interview with the Guardian.
“I think the new shadow lord chancellor, Steve Reed, has certainly been very vocal in his commitment to being tough on criminals, but we don’t know what that means. At the moment, it’s just tweets and comments to the media. It is not policy.
“You don’t know what the policy could be. The policy could be fantastically progressive, but it’s hard to imagine how that would be consistent with this sort of messaging,” she said.
Labour hit back at Coomber’s criticism, pointing out that the party had pledged to introduce “victim payback boards” in a drive to restore public confidence in community sentences for anti-social behaviour.
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