Four in ten say Conservatives are not the party of law and order

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

• New polling commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has found over four in ten Brits (42%) do not believe the Conservative party is the party of law and order. 
• In a new blow for the Conservative party brand, even a quarter (26%) of 2019 Conservative voters do not believe they are the party of law and order. 

Lib Dem Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael will use his Spring Conference speech this weekend to slam the Conservative Government for poor prioritisation in the Home Office, and spend the £230 million earmarked for facial recognition and drones on facial recognition instead.

It is the latest in a string of Home Office failures at the hands of the Conservative Government, who have cycled through five Home Secretaries in just five years. 

Unsolved crime remains sky high, with the latest Home Office statistics showing that 3 in 4 car thefts and burglaries are still going unsolved. The Liberal Democrats have slammed the Conservative Government for these figures, arguing that their decision to take more than 4,500 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) off the streets since 2015 has decimated frontline policing. 

Meanwhile, the Government used last week’s Budget to announce a new £230 million fund to help police forces roll out technology like facial recognition and drones. Ministers remained silent on PCSO numbers. 

At their Spring Conference, the Liberal Democrats will call into question the Conservatives’ ability to fix the deep seated issues in the Home Office.

It follows previous research commissioned by the party, which revealed Brits’ “crisis of confidence” in the police’s ability to show up. Polling from October 2023 showed that around three in five adults say they would not be confident that the police would turn up and properly investigate if their home was burgled (58%) or their car was stolen (63%). 

In today’s speech, Alistair Carmichael will call on Conservative ministers to move beyond “taglines and targets” in favour of longer-term solutions for their continued shortcomings. 

He will also call for the £230 million of technology funding including on facial recognition and drones to be invested in frontline policing instead.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said: 

“The British people can see through the Government’s attempts to masquerade taglines and targets as real policy. They know the Conservatives have no plan - and no clue - when it comes to fixing their failures in the Home Office. 

“The decision to spend nearly a quarter of a billion pounds on facial recognition and drones while community officer numbers are decimated tells you everything you need to know about the Conservative’s priorities.

“There’s been enough chaos and crisis. Wide-scale reform in the Home Office is the only way to deliver the change the British public deserves. If the Conservatives can’t manage that, they should call a General Election and make room for someone who can.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

The story was intially reported in the Telegraph

Methodology: For polling on whether the Conservatives are the party of law and order, Savanta interviewed 2,256 UK adults aged 18+ online between 1st and 4th March 2024. Data were weighted to be representative of the UK by age, sex, region, and social grade.

Full data results can be found here

Q1. Which of the following best describes your view? Base: All respondents (n=2,256)

Further details on previous polling from October 2023 can be found here. 

Data on cuts to Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) can be found in Home Office, ‘Police workforce, England and Wales, 30 September 2023: data tables’, Table 3. 

Data on unsolved burglaries can be found here. Source: Home Office, Crime Outcomes in England and Wales, year to September 2023. 

Data on unsolved car thefts can be found here. Source: Home Office, Crime Outcomes in England and Wales, year to September 2023.