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Richard Ottaway (Croydon, South) (Con): Before the hon. Gentleman turns to Liberal Democrat policy, will he confirm that the total figures that he is giving include the community support officers, as those numbers will make quite a difference? Does he recognise that a future Conservative Government would substantially increase the number of policemen on the streets of London? The key point is not just the numbers of policemen on the beat, but what is done with them and the way in which they are organised. There is a great need for reform of the way in which the police operate, and the success of Mayor Giuliani in New York was very much based on targeting specific problems. Does the hon. Gentleman recognise that that is the key to combating crime, and not just police numbers?

Clive Efford: I shall come to that point later. I thought that the hon. Gentleman was going to apologise for reducing the number of police officers in London and for contributing significantly to the rise in crime. The statistics show that that reduction in police officers kicked off an enormous increase in crime across London that continued until 1999, when the rate of the increase started to level off. The level has continued to increase, but the rate of increase has now started to come down. There is a straightforward correlation between the number of police officers and the crime rate. The reduction in the number of police officers in London lead to a crime wave across our capital city, and there is no getting away from that fact.

On scaremongering, the Conservatives' advertisement in today's Evening Standard has prompted an unprecedented response from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, who has vehemently denied the claims made in the advertisement and has gone so far as to issue a statement and letters to mayoral candidates demanding that they temper their claims and ensure that they are based on facts, as they are adding to the problem of fear of crime across London.

Let us consider the crime rates. Street robbery is down 20 per cent.; burglary in London is the lowest for 25 years; reported burglary is down to a 27-year low; street crime is down one third; and murder is at 200 a year and has remained steady, despite the claims made by the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster. As I said earlier, when Giuliani reduced crime in New York, he reduced it to 1,000 a year, so we are not talking about figures that bear comparison—

Simon Hughes: The murder rate was reduced to 1,000 a year.

Clive Efford: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for pointing that out.
 
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The suggestion that the figures bear comparison misleads Londoners and is scaremongering in the extreme. It is an attempt to create a fear of crime that is not justified. Furthermore, I point out to the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster that Mr. Norris will have a great deal of difficulty in delivering on the claims that he has published. That suggests that he does not think that he will ever have to deliver on them or that he will ever win the election. The rate of reduction in crime in London will make it difficult for him to halve crime and mirror the achievements of Mr. Giuliani.

This is the first year in which we have had a Mayor in London, and the Mayor's achievements on policing and creating safer communities are considerable. He has increased police numbers to more than 30,000, and that trend is set to continue, but his most significant contribution is the introduction of step change. We have begun to move police officers into the community and to work with local communities to address the fear of crime. In spite of the decrease in those crimes that have been targeted, the one area on which the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster is correct is fear of crime, which remains frustratingly high.

Fear of crime is due to antisocial behaviour on our streets, and that is where step change will make a big difference. Our police officers must be seen within their communities, their approach must be intelligence-led and they must be in contact with the local community to identify the minority, who have a disproportionate effect on crime rates and on the fear of crime in our communities, in order to make Londoners feel safer in those communities. Step change is being introduced in 100 wards across London and it will make a significant contribution—we must work with local communities to address the fear of crime. No responsible politician should claim that there is a widespread crime wave across London and that Londoners should justifiably feel under threat.

Linda Perham: My hon. Friend is ably telling us about improvements in policing, police numbers and community support officers. Does he agree that local communities are reassured by the presence of street wardens, which is another Government initiative?

Clive Efford: There are many initiatives, and there also partnerships between local authorities, businesses, communities and others. Strategies to tackle crime and communities have significantly contributed to reducing crime and the fear of crime. We must tackle our constituents' concerns, and the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster misrepresented the issue.

The Mayor has done a remarkable job on not only policing and community safety, but transport and other areas. We must all appreciate that London, as the capital city, makes an enormous contribution to Britain as a whole, and that to denigrate our capital city is self-defeating in the extreme. To suggest that our transport network is in a parlous state, that London's streets are not safe and that we will shut down the underground during the main period for tourists is away with the fairies. It is absolutely essential not to overstate the
 
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problems that any major city inevitably faces, but the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster has done that.

5.48 pm

Mr. John Horam (Orpington) (Con): My hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham (Mrs. Lait) made two excellent interventions, and, typically, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) intervened on a point of order, so it is entirely appropriate that I, the hon. Member for Orpington, should contribute, thus making a full hand from Bromley.

Bromley is a great borough, and a wholly Conservative borough, which has wished, from time to time, that it were not in London and that it had remained in Kent. It has particularly wished that over the four years—not, as the hon. Member for Eltham (Clive Efford) said, just one year—that we have had a Mayor of London. Millions of residents in outer London pay a fortune into Ken Livingstone's budget and get precious little in return.

I am glad to see my hon. Friends the Members for Uxbridge (Mr. Randall), for Upminster (Angela Watkinson) and for Croydon, South (Richard Ottaway), because I am sure that they agree that this has been a disastrous period of mayoralty for the leafy suburbs. I believe that that alone constitutes a reason for getting rid of this now Labour, formerly independent, Mayor. I think that even my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field) would agree that he has been above all a zone 1 Mayor, and that the contribution that he has made to the lives of the millions of people in outer London is negligible.

Let me cite the example of crime. Hon. Members have said a lot about crime statistics. I venture into that area with great certainty, because I know for a fact that the number of police in the borough of Bromley is no higher than it was in 1997. We have not benefited in any way from the extra police who have appeared in London as a whole. I do not know where they are, but they certainly have not come to Bromley. As the hon. Member for Eltham said, there is a correlation between crime and police numbers, but there is also a correlation between antisocial behaviour and police numbers. As the Minister pointed out, antisocial behaviour is a growing problem—and it is very evident to local residents, who often care about it more than the terrible crimes that they rarely see committed. Antisocial behaviour and yobbery are seen on a day-to-day basis in suburban areas of London, as well as in the city. Places such as Bromley have no more police to deal with the situation than they had six or seven years ago, which is a tragedy for residents.

According to the figures that my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Mr. Letwin) gave when he was shadow Home Secretary, the Conservative approach would give 200 extra police to a London borough such as Bromley. Even then, adding an extra 200 to the 450 or so we already have would only give us the same number as there are today in the borough of Lewisham. That is the extent to which my borough is disadvantaged by the current system. I beg the Minister—although it is not his direct responsibility, but that of the Mayor—to bear in mind that some boroughs will continue to get a raw deal as a result of the way in which the financing of policing in London is organised.
 
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Mr. Pound: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way to me, although the House usually is not so grateful. As the Member for Ealing, North, the leafiest of the leafy suburbs, I can tell him that we have reason to be grateful, not only because we have more police officers, but because, crucially, we have a say in how many are recruited and how they are deployed. That never happened when we had one Friday morning debate a year on the matter. Will the hon. Gentleman tell me whether he is happy with the existing structure of the Metropolitan Police Authority and would wish to retain it?

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