Labour leader Keir Starmer has vowed to crack down on antisocial behaviour as he hit the election campaign trail.
The party chief spoke exclusively to the Mirror on a visit to Birmingham Erdington, as voters prepare to go to the polls on March 3 in a ballot triggered by the sudden death of popular Labour MP Jack Dromey.
Former Director of Public Prosecutions Mr Starmer said antisocial behaviour made people's lives a misery and neighbourhood policing hubs would help target local yobs.
“I've never bought the argument that this is some low-level offence,” he said.
“It's a dominant presence in people's lives because they're surrounded by that behaviour all the time.”
The Holborn and St Pancras MP said his constituents report such crimes on a regular basis.
“You don't have to talk to many people in the community, you don't have to knock on many doors before you come across someone who's dealing with unwanted antisocial behaviour.”
Stressing the impact of this crime, he added: “Having prosecuted every criminal case in England or Wales for five years, I know first hand the impact that antisocial behaviour has on families and on individuals.
“If people feel they can't go out of their house, because of antisocial behaviour, particularly after dark, which is not uncommon, then that is a major impact on their lives.”
According to official figures, 1.8 million incidents of anti-social behaviour were recorded from June 2020 to June 2021.
A Labour government would ensure police officers do not “downgrade” the crime as “somehow not important”, Mr Starmer insisted.
"We would recognise it and we would tackle it."
Wearing his trademark blue suit and deep red tie, the Labour leader visited the constituency on the final day of his West Midlands tour.
In a walk around the town, Mr Starmer visited an Afro-Caribbean hair salon, before taking part in a round table at the local leisure centre on plans to help Brits improve their mental health in the wake of the pandemic.
Mr Starmer spoke about watching his dad, a toolmaker, feel undervalued and sidelined by society because of his working class job.
And he opened up about the difficulties his sister has faced for the first time.
He told the Mirror: “I remember this most distinctly with my dad because he worked in a factory on a shop floor.
“He was highly skilled, and I think everyone who works in engineering and manufacturing is highly skilled. But he wasn’t valued. He wasn’t respected because of what he did for a living.
“He felt people looked down on him. And he was right about that. And that had a real impact on me."
Mr Starmer took a few moments before adding: “I could feel what it meant to him not to be respected. Equally my sister is a care worker.
"People often say in a glib way, it’s not a skilled job. But it’s highly skilled work, work I couldn’t do."
Candidate Paulette Hamilton vowed to stand up for poorer communities in Parliament as she grew up in a small terraced house without a washing machine.
Ms Hamilton told the Mirror she knows how it feels to be overlooked because of her race and gender, and shunned because her family wasn't wealthy
It comes as a new poll showed two in five people (39%) believe Mr Starmer would make the best PM, up three points from last month and 12 points higher than this time last year (27%).
Mr Starmer blasted Boris Johnson over Partygate, saying the Prime Minister has a tendency to "drag everyone down with him".
"He doesn't, you know, believe in honesty and transparency and accountability, the principles of public life. And his way of operating is to drag everybody down with him.
"So whether it's lawyers or anybody else, he will drag everybody into the gutter if he possibly can. It's the way that he operates."
