Labour promises to recruit an extra 13,000 community police in crime crackdown

The pledge would aim to assign named officers and PCSOs to every community and be backed up by new training and technology

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, during a visit to Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, where she met with PCSOs to discuss the challenges with knife crime and anti-social behaviour, as part of a Labour Party crime initiative (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

Labour will promise to recruit an extra 13,000 community police officers and PCSOs to tackle knife crime and drug dealing if elected.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper is expected to announce the “neighbourhood policing guarantee” on Thursday.

Ms Cooper will also take aim at a deliberately “hands-off Home Office” culture which she will claim has been fostered by the Conservatives over the last 13 years.