How Brits turned soft on crime

It is almost exactly 30 years since a young Labour politician told his party’s annual conference in Brighton that as home secretary, he would be ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime’.

That line helped make Tony Blair a star, since it allowed a left-wing party to grab an issue where its right-wing opponents traditionally held sway. That was the era of Michael Howard as home secretary, when the public and the people who helped set the political agenda were largely in favour of a tough, punitive approach to crime. Howard’s famously harsh Criminal Justice Act 1994 was a sign of those times.  

Yet things change. The recent Conservative conference was heavy on speeches and events that allowed some commentators to allege a Tory slide towards the hard right. But the topics covered were notable for what was missing. Yes, the ECHR and migrant rights were a key focus, but where was the ‘lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key’ message on crime from would-be Tory leaders such as Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch and Miriam Cates?  

(Yes, I include Cates as a leadership contender.