Cameron tells yobs: Watch out the Tories are about

DAVID CAMERON today warned young people that a Conservative government would impose curfews on yobs, axe cautions and lock up drunks.

Unveiling new moves to tackle crime, the Tory leader said children and adults would have to understand that under his premiership "you're not going to get away with it any more".

"If we win the next election, I want a loud and clear message to be heard by every kid who's getting into trouble and every kid who's thinking about it: It's the Conservatives you're dealing with now," Mr Cameron said. His remarks came as shadow home secretary Chris Grayling set out plans to reverse Labour's binge-drinking crisis, put more police on the streets and target gang ring-leaders.

In his first major speech since taking over his post, Mr Grayling said he would be "unashamedly tough" with youth crime.

He also denied that it was "inevitable" offending should rise in a recession, as predicted by the Home Office.

Mr Cameron, who was accused of "hug a hoodie" rhetoric two years ago, stressed that he still wanted to tackle the causes of crime. But he declared that under a Tory government the Home Secretary would only be focused on cutting crime rather than acting as "social services" for perpetrators.

"For the last decade or so, we have seen that vital, single-minded focus on crime-fighting disastrously diluted so the Home Office and the police too often see themselves as some kind of social service," he said.

"No. They are not a social service. They are a force. And with a Conservative government I want them to be a force to be respected and reckoned with.

"I want the police to do what they're supposed to do which is to fight crime, not waste time." Mr Grayling said that a Conservative government would reintroduce a sense of "right and wrong" in the criminal justice system.

"Fewer rights, more wrongs. The starting point has to be that reality of life today," he said.

He vowed to end the "caution culture" which allowed young people to rack up a string of warnings before facing any serious penalties.

Attacking Labour's 24-hour licensing laws, Mr Grayling also said that he wanted to see drunks locked up in police cells rather than wasting the night in accident and emergency departments of hospitals.

The shadow home secretary said he wanted to stop use of the term "anti-social behaviour" and instead describe such conduct - from verbal abuse of old people in the street to jumping on car bonnets - as criminal acts.

Young people will face home curfews and a return to "clip round the ear" policing under the plans, to force parents to take responsibility for their offspring.

Police would be allowed to "ground" children who cause trouble in their neighbourhoods.

Youths aged between 10 and 17 would be confined by the courts to their homes, except to attend school, and breaches of the curfew would risk a custodial sentence.

Police would also be given the power to instantly pull youngsters off the streets and hold them at stations before making their parents collect them.

Labour hit back, with the Home Office claiming that Mr Grayling's policies were either unworkable or had already been adopted.

The Home Office said it had stopped the practice of giving cautions for carrying a knife.

Labour sources said Mr Cameron's new hard-line tone was a "desperate" attempt to shrug off his "hug a hoodie" image. His pledge appeared to "criminalise" all children.

"A Tory government would scrap the CCTV that stops and solves crimes and the DNA database that has caught killers and rapists," a source said.

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