Boris Johnson's carefully choreographed 'Beating Crime' announcement is just a precursor of post-Covid politics

Boris Johnson emerges from his self-isolation today and will head straight out on the road to announce his big plan on 'Beating Crime'.

Like most government announcements, it's been almost completely trailed in the media, with the headline measures including:

- Burglars let out of prison after serving a sentence of more than a year will be electronically tagged for 24 hours

- The rules put in place by Theresa May to limit the use of stop and search by police will be relaxed

- Project Adder - which targets drugs gangs, offers help to addicts and increases the use of drugs testing when arrests are made - will be expanded from five areas of England to 13

- Offenders will be made to clean streets and other public spaces as part of their probation

- A 'safer streets fund' to improve lighting and CCTV in areas around busy nightlife

- Proposals for league tables ranking how quickly police forces answer 101 and 999 calls

- A named police officer for each victim of a crime

- A programme to persuade young people who attend hospital with a stab wound or come into contact with police to stay away from violence

Why is the PM announcing this now?

Well, partly it's an attempt to move on from the pandemic and show how the government is actually governing, rather than just firefighting Covid.

But the more pressing reason will have been recent opinion polls, which showed the Tories' seemingly unassailable lead over Labour starting to drop, with the latest showing a shrinking from 9 points to 4 in just a week.

Remember, this comes after two disappointing by-elections in quick succession.

Unsurprisingly, Labour has already been out on the attack, with Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds pointing to the Tories' 11-year record on crime: “On their watch, anti-social behaviour is rocketing, there are record low convictions for rape and violent crime is devastating communities across the country."

And the Police Federation aren't too impressed either. Its chairman John Apter writes: "We don’t need old ideas presented as new, we need genuine investment for the whole of the criminal justice system and genuine consultation over new ideas. Without that, this is just another ill-thought out initiative."

This debate is an early indication of where politics could be headed post-Covid, as the main political parties prepare to duke it out on which has the better ideas on a whole host of policy areas.

Expect similar battle lines to be drawn on similarly crisis-hit issues like immigration, social care, education and the economic recovery.

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