Jeremy Corbyn led his PMQs interrogation on the rising knife crime epidemic today, attacking the PM over reductions in police numbers. But Guido isn’t so sure that the Labour leadership’s newfound claims to be the best placed to secure law and order are accurate…

Just last month, Corbyn’s Labour Party voted against several measures that would have helped to combat the rising knife crime crisis. In the Lords, Labour voted against the introduction of Knife Crime Prevention Orders, which are designed to place curbs on those who routinely carry knives, and prevent gang escalation. In the Commons, they voted against an extra £970 million being made available to the police. Not a single Labour MP voted in favour…

Back in 2014, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell both voted against changing the law so anyone caught carrying a knife for a second time would face a custodial sentence. Corbyn said he would vote against the measure because it “looks tough”. Oh, and in 2005 the future Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said she wanted to dismantle the police…

 “We are not interested in reforming … the police, armed services, judiciary and monarchy. We are about dismantling them and replacing them with our own machinery of class rule.”

With a record like this it’s a brave move for Corbyn’s Labour now to be trying to portray themselves as the party of law and order…

UPDATE: Meanwhile, Shadow Policing Minister Louise Haigh has co-signed this letter to Theresa May today, saying:

“It was therefore remarkable to hear you claim again on Monday that “there is no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers”. Regrettably, this shows that you are in complete denial and senior officers across the country have said so.”

Who told the Today Programme in April last year: “We do not say that there is a direct correlation or a direct causal factor between the number of officers on the ground and the number[s] of crime”? Louise Haigh…