Nigel Farage chose Reform UK’s new headquarters in the heart of Westminster to wage his war on crime and “the greatest assault on free speech in our lifetimes”.
Flanked by former detective Colin Sutton, who brought serial killer Levi Bellfield to justice for killing Milly Dowler, Mr Farage said teenagers, especially young girls, must feel safer walking the streets and crimes, such as mobile phone thefts, should fall.
It came after Mr Sutton stressed the police must restore confidence with the public.
This is quite striking.
Mr Farage’s measure of success is not just a commitment to reducing the prevalence of certain offences. Of course, he has already committed to halving crime.
The Reform chief is taking view of the bigger picture of the state of Britain. People don’t feel safe walking down the streets.
They see anti-social behaviour – or far worse – in every town centre across the country and the police are often nowhere to be seen. Social media is awash daily with clips of grotesque levels of violence on Britain’s streets.
And Mr Sutton seemed to hit the nail on the head about the frustrations with much of modern policing.
Amid the violence, unsolved burglaries and thefts and the fraud epidemic, the former detective warned police chiefs are forcing officers to monitor social media.
Mr Sutton said police officers did not join up “to police social media”.
He added: “Like most organisations, the police service has been captured by a liberal ideology and people are too scared about bucking against that ideology.”
The public are crying out for action to make Britain’s streets safer.
Instead, over the weekend the Online Safety Act came into force. This, Mr Farage warned, is leading Britain “towards a very dystopian place”. Reform’s efficiency tsar, Zia Yusuf, described it as the “greatest assault on free speech in our lifetimes”.
While shops are being broken into, many fear the police are more interested in what is being said online rather than outside on the streets.
Mr Farage’s six-week policy blitz will also explore the link between crime and mass-migration.
He told reporters: “Most of us now don’t even bother to report crime, firstly because we don’t think the police will do anything about it.
“There is an alarming parallel between the extraordinary increase in the number of reported rapes and the wholly irresponsible immigration and asylum policies pursued by first Labour and then by Conservative governments.
“Even to have said that a couple of years ago would have been difficult without being shouted down and I’d felt we’d come to a place where we could honestly talk about crime, where we could honestly talk about the fact that we want the right types of people from different countries coming into Britain, not the wrong types of people.”
It was abundantly clear that fighting crime is going to be a central part of Mr Farage’s offer to the British public at the next election.
But it is not being seen in isolation.
It is being seen in the context of the huge societal changes taking place in Britain.
Sitting in the room, it seems clear he wants the police and the Home Office to see them too.