Alok Sharma joined forces with Reading East MP, Rob Wilson, this week to strongly endorse radical and bold new plans – set out in the Conservatives’ draft election manifesto – to tackle crime and restore confidence in Britain’s ‘broken’ criminal justice system. The new draft manifesto includes a key campaign objective of the Knives Cost Lives Campaign, launched by Lucy Davis and Rob Wilson.

The importance of the Conservatives’ new proposals is underlined by new analysis revealing that there were an astonishing 4,588 violent attacks on people across the Reading Borough in the last year, a rise of 198 per cent in the last decade – one of the highest increases in the whole country. Under the manifesto plans, a Conservative Government would:

• Make it clear that anyone caught carrying a knife in a public place can expect to be prosecuted and sent to prison, following the Knives Cost Lives Campaign.
• Give Reading’s citizens greater protection if they have to defend themselves against intruders in their homes, or if they stop a crime being committed in the street.
• Create fifteen new rape crisis centres across the country, and give all existing rape crisis centres stable, long-term funding. At present, there is no rape crisis centre in Reading.
• Grant Reading Borough Council new powers to fight booze-fuelled antisocial behaviour in the town, and stop supermarkets selling alcohol at below cost-price which is destroying law-abiding local pubs and fuelling low-level crime.
• Replace the invisible and unaccountable Thames Valley Police Authority, making the police properly accountable to a directly elected person who will set priorities for local policing.
• Publish detailed street-by-street crime statistics online every month, in an open and standardised format, so people know the real level of crime in their neighbourhood.

Commenting on the new proposals, Alok Sharma said, “Labour has launched an endless number of initiatives and top-down schemes which have made little difference. Their broken promises have undermined people’s trust. We can’t go on with the police filling in forms instead of fighting crime.
“Our hard-working local police officers deserve the highest praise. But many people across Reading are hugely frustrated with our criminal justice system. They feel that it’s just not on their side anymore. These major Conservative proposals will help put the law back on the side of local people in our town and give our police the full support they so richly deserve.”
Rob added, “I am delighted that my party has listened to one of the key demands of Reading’s Knives Cost Lives Campaign. People should not be carrying knives as a general rule and tough action is needed to stop it. We will now insist on that tough action if we win the General Election.”