Labour's record on tackling crime

29th January 2010

Home Secretary Alan Johnson challenges David Cameron about dodgy crime stats in Hounslow

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has today urged David Cameron to come clean about his misleading claims that violent crime is rising in Hounslow.

According to the British Crime Survey violent crime has fallen by 41% over the past ten years. Yet David Cameron deliberately ignores the truth and continues to suggest the opposite.

Alan Johnson said:

“The Tories have been caught out fiddling the figures and that is simply unacceptable. Politicians have a duty to present the truth and we will not let the Tories get away with this deliberate manipulation."

Alan Keen MP said:

“There has been a steep decline in violent crime over the past ten years and that is true for Hounslow as it is for the rest of the country. David Cameron never misses an opportunity to talk down our country and even resorts to misleading the public about Labour’s record on tackling violent crime”.

Letters from Alan Johnson to David Cameron below

19^th November 2009

Rt Hon David Cameron MP

House of Commons

London

SW1AA 0AA

Dear Mr Cameron,

In your response to the Queen’s speech yesterday you once again claimed that violent crime is up by 70%. Chris Grayling has made similar claims.

70 per cent does not relate to any easily recognisable figure. The British Crime Survey is the best indicator of longer-term trends in crime. It shows a 41% decrease in incidents of violence since 1997.

It is unclear as to how your 70% figure has been derived. In 1998 and again in 2002 changes were made to the way in which crime was counted by the Police. These changes were designed to increase coverage of offences (for example including for the first time assault without injury - then termed common assault). They also brought in a more victim-focused reporting system, where victim accounts had to be accepted unless there was credible evidence to the contrary. The effect of these changes was to artificially increase police recorded violent crime. The 70% figure you quote therefore does not give an accurate reflection of actual changes in the level of violent crime.

These changes mean that the British Crime Survey, which was introduced by the Conservative government, remains the most reliable measure of long term trends in crime. Unlike police recorded crime, results from the survey are unaffected by the public’s propensity to report crime to the police or by police recording practice. This means that a decrease in violent crime between 1997 and 2008/09 of 41% is the most robust and accurate measure.

Politicians have a duty to present to the public the truth. You have deliberately and wilfully repeated an inaccurate statistic on violent crime that bears no relation to the truth. The effect of this is to alarm the public and present a picture of violent crime in Britain today that is simply inaccurate.

Rather than continue to mislead the public in this way it would be more honest in future if you would quote the most reliable statistics on violent crime – a 41% decrease since 1997 - instead of your own made up statistics.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Johnson

27^th January 2010

Alan Johnson

Home Secretary

Rt Hon. David Cameron MP

House of Commons

London

SW1AA 0AA

Dear David,

Re: Your claims about violent crime

I wrote to you on 19^th November (copy attached) questioning your claims that violent crime has risen by 70% in the last decade.

I do not appear to have received a reply but on the release of the crime statistics last week you once again claimed that violent crime is rising “significantly”. When challenged on this by a reporter Conservative Central Office confirmed, as I had suggested in my previous letter, that you were comparing pre 2002 crime statistics with post 2002 statistics when you know full well they are calculated in a wholly different way. As the BBC journalist who questioned you on this said:

“It emerges that the only way the Conservative leader can back up his claims is to ignore the klaxon warning attached to the statistics following changes in the way police record violent incidents in England and Wales”. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2010/01/conservative_estimates_on_viol.html

You said in your New Year message that you wanted a clean fight. Yet in your continuing efforts to talk our country down, you deliberately mislead the public by using a false comparison and ignoring what is universally regarded as the most accurate measure that shows a decrease in violent crime of 41% since 1997.

Yours Sincerely

Alan Johnson