Labour plans curfew for William and gang

A plan by Labour's home affairs spokesman to impose a 9pm curfew on children aged under eleven met with scepticism from Shadow Cabinet colleagues last night and was attacked as "big brother" by the Government.

The Home Office minister Timothy Kirkhope said: "The idea of a wholesale curfew is an affront to the majority of well-behaved young people. This policy of a general curfew espouses the values of a socialist big brother who wants to control everything and is simply unable to trust anybody to exercise individual responsibility."

Tory MPs privately welcomed the curfew proposal by Jack Straw. "We have nine and 10-year-olds causing chaos after nine o'clock at night and there is nothing you can do, because yobbish behaviour is not illegal," said one. However, Donald Dewar, the Labour chief whip, was not sure curfews would be "workable". He told BBC 1's On the Record: "I haven't discussed it. I haven't looked at the practicalities.

''My first instinct is that this is a problem of very real proportions. I'm not sure that a curfew would be a workable solution. But what I do believe is that any responsible political party should be considering these problems."

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat spokesman, attacked curfews as "the latest simplistic, unenforcable and dangerous Labour idea".

Mr Straw strongly defended the idea, which he said would be considered as part of the wider Labour policy plans for dealing with youth crime. He denied he was copying the curfews in some states in America, endorsed last week by President Bill Clinton in the run-up to his presidential election campaign. "I have lots and lots of complaints of children, who are under 10, out on the streets after nine o'clock at night," Mr Straw said. "This is a specific proposal to deal with young children. I am not saying this should be adopted as a national plan. It is something that should be tried locally."

It would require primary legislation to give the police the power to take children off the streets after 10pm if they were unaccompanied by adults.

Although it is likely to cause a backlash from Labour's left wing, Mr Straw is convinced there is a growing problem, even in traditional market towns in Tory areas, of children being allowed to run in gangs at night, and that there will be public support for a curfew.

Home Office sources said they had no plans for introducing curfews, but a wide-ranging Bill on law and order is planned for the autumn, which Labour could use to raise the curfew plan.

The police are likely to complain they lack the resources to shoulder the burden of catching children, but Mr Straw said other initiatives to curb teenage crime including banning street drinking in some towns had released police to do other duties.

"My preference would be for children aged 10 and under to be off the streets by 9pm," Mr Straw said. "But it would be up to the local authorities to decide. This is not jack-booted centralism."

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