KEIR STARMER’S comments on anti-social behaviour in Reading was scaremongering and not based in reality according to the leader of the town’s Conservative group.
Yesterday, the Labour leader visited Dee Caf in the Dee Park area of Tilehurst to meet with residents and police officers to hear about their experiences with ‘yob’ culture.
Afterwards, he told Reading Today: “In Reading today, I heard from residents about just how deeply antisocial behaviour affects their lives. Everyone has the right to feel safe in their community and must never feel intimidated going about their daily lives.”
And he criticised the Conservatives, saying: “The people of Reading deserve better than Conservative failure.
“The Tories talk tough, but look at their record, not their rhetoric. They’ve allowed antisocial behaviour to spiral in Reading, suppressing growth in our communities and undermining respect across Britain.
“We’ll take Reading back from the yobs. And we will bring respect back to Britain.”
This is not the experience of Cllr Clarence Mitchell, the Conservative Group Leader on Reading Borough Council, who told Reading Today the Labour leader had visited part of the new Reading West and Mid Berkshire seat, which is not on their target list.
Labour has also yet to select a candidate for this constituency – although the Conservatives haven’t either.
“For Sir Keir Starmer to descend on Reading and present a completely distorted image of the town, and then blame the Conservatives, is at best utterly iill-informed and at worst, desperate politicking in a new seat that Labour know, and have already effectively admitted, that they have no chance of winning,” Cllr Mitchell said.
“Reading’s Conservative councillors take anti-social behaviour very seriously wherever it rears its ugly head and we will always support our residents who suffer from it but, if Sir Keir’s ridiculous portrayal of Reading somehow being in the grip of yobs is in any way based in reality.
“Has no one told him that Reading actually has had a Labour administration for the best part of three decades which should have been dealing with it?”
He continued: “On the very day that ONS figures showed that, excluding London, the national trend for offences involving knives or sharp instruments is actually slightly declining – as the Home Secretary rightly pointed out – shouldn’t Sir Keir also be directing his comments to the Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, whose dire record shows a huge increase in the capital’s level of knife crime that skews the figures for the rest of the country.
“Reading remains a wonderful town which is largely safe and Labour are now apparently so desperate that they think they have to paint Reading in the worst possible light to have any chance at all in the new seat of Reading West & Mid-Berkshire come the General Election.
“Instead of scaremongering, Reading’s Conservatives and the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley will be continuing to do all within their power to keep our residents safe despite Sir Keir’s false claims.”
