Boris Johnson’s law and order push will turn Britain into a crime factory

Editorial: Conviction rates are only tenuously linked to police numbers, and longer sentences generally do little to deter criminals or reduce reoffending. Often, it achieves the opposite, which the government would do well to recognise

A personality never absent from British politics for very long, “Laura Norder” has been called upon once again to provide the newly energised Conservatives with a pre-election boost.

Whether Boris Johnson is forced to go to the polls in the autumn, before or after he has “delivered” Brexit, or whether he prefers to win his own mandate at his leisure next year, he is preparing the ground assiduously. Scarcely a day goes by without some bold new policy launch.

So it is with law and order. In recent days we have seen the government commit “new money”, obviously claimed to be “fully funded” for some self-consciously populist causes. The announcement of 20,000 extra police on the streets, for example, is conveniently precisely double Labour’s pledge and, less conveniently, restores only about half of the cuts on numbers made since 2010. There then followed a new prison building programme. After that, essentially in tandem, a rethink on sentencing and early release.