Conservatives risking reputation on law and order, say ministers

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/may/21/conservatives-risking-reputation-law-and-order

Senior Tories have raised concerns that the party is risking its reputation for being strong on law and order as the police unveiled plans for a summer campaign of protest against coalition cuts.

Officers from more than 40 forces will put their case against the government's cost-cutting and wider changes, at a meeting in parliamenton Monday, while the Police Federation, which represents the rank and file, has announced a national "day of action" in July aimed at derailing the current policies.

David Davis, the Conservatives' former home affairs spokesman, expressed fears that the party was in danger of losing its reputation for being tough on crime and that public confidence was being dented by cuts to the police and justice systems combined with new liberal sentencing policies.

After a week in which the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, caused a storm over proposals to offer shorter sentences to rapists who confessed at an early stage, Davis said: "There is a serious risk that the Conservative party will lose its clear 20 to 30 point opinion poll leads on crime and immigration if it does not take a clearer stance on these issues."