Government policies to improve law and order announced today in the King’s Speech have been described as a ‘shoplifter’s charter’ – after it was announced that 30,000 criminals will now avoid jail every year.

The comments were made by GB News presenter Nigel Farage, who said: “Ever since the death penalty was abolished in the late 1960s, we were told then we can get rid of the death penalty because those that commit murder will serve a full life sentence in prison – except they didn’t.

“In 1983, Margaret Thatcher stood up and said, in future life means life and then John Major as Prime Minister in the mid 90s stood up and said, ‘Life means life’.

“Then David Cameron said, for the most heinous offences, ‘life will mean life’.

“Theresa May proposed measures to ensure that life sentences meant life for those who committed the most serious terrorist offences.

“Boris Johnson promised that those convicted of violent crimes such as child murder, should receive ‘life means life’ sentences.

“They’ve been saying it over and over, and they’re saying it because they want you to think they’re going to get tough on law and order. And yet what was included in today’s King’s speech was the fact that 30,000 criminals will now avoid jail every single year.

“Yes, that’s right. 30,000 people with convictions will avoid jail.

“We’re not going to send anybody to jail who gets a sentence of less than one year, unless it is in some way violent or sexual. In which case actually, the sentence will be more than a year anyway.

“It is, frankly, a shoplifter’s charter.

“The broken windows theory that was put into place in New York said that when you have lots and lots of little pieces of small crime, actually the whole area gets worse and leads to more violent crime.

“The idea somehow, that we can promise life means life without ever really intending to deliver it, whilst at the same time saying that 30,000 people a year will not go to prison.

“Sorry, it doesn’t fly with me.

“What happens is we live in a less safe society, a society in which we’re more fearful to walk down the street.

“Take London. In London, there is no doubt there has been a serious deterioration of law and order in London in a very major way. And it isn’t just knife crime in the poorer suburbs. It’s Kensington and Chelsea and people having their watches stolen, and I’m told it is as a similar pattern in Birmingham, Liverpool and elsewhere.

“I’m not impressed by this.