The Prime Minister was in Essex this morning, unveiling his much-briefed antisocial behaviour plan. In recent weeks he and Keir Starmer have been giving a foretaste of what is to come in next year’s general election by trading blows on a range of policy areas. Last week Starmer gave a big speech on law and order; today it was Sunak’s turn to respond. The Tory leader said his plan – with its headline-grabbing plan to ban nitrous oxide – can be summed up in three ‘buckets’: more policing powers, a zero-tolerance approach to drugs and a focus on urgency that will require offenders to repair the damage they have done more quicker. He told the audience how much he loathes the ‘scourge’ of nitrous oxide canisters on the ground in public and promised tougher on-the-spot fines for fly-tipping and graffiti.
It was the kind of politically uncontroversial antisocial behaviour bashing that we have seen since Tony Blair’s day: a fact demonstrated by Labour’s decision to focus on the implementation, not the substance, of Sunak’s plan.
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