SIR KEIR STARMER: Rishi Sunak and the Tories have let criminals get away with it trends now
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Zara Aleena was a young woman with her whole life ahead of her. Last summer, as she walked home from a night out with friends, she was brutally murdered by a violent thug – a hardened criminal not fit to walk the same streets as her.
He should have been in prison. Zara should still be alive. But something has changed in Britain over the last decade. For the first time in my lifetime, everywhere you look – from the economy to the NHS to the chaos on our streets – we have been set on a path of decline.
As a former director of public prosecutions, my life's work has been about making our country safer and more secure, building a better Britain for families everywhere. But over the last decade, we have become a country where thugs, gangs and monsters mock our justice system and make decent people's lives a misery.
I refuse to just stand by or avoid calling this what it is. When fewer than two in every 100 reported rapists see the inside of a court room, it means victims are being told their bravery means nothing by the Tories. When just 4 per cent of burglaries and thefts ever result in a criminal charge, those who break into your home do so believing they won't get caught. When we have the largest court backlog on record, victims wait years for justice. And it is not just the most egregious crimes. Older people are more likely than ever
