Conservative parties everywhere have traditionally been identified with maintaining law and order and cracking down on crime. As part of his successful campaign to appeal to right-of-centre voters, even Tony Blair before his 1997 election triumph famously vowed to be ‘tough on crime – and tough on the causes of crime’. So, in yet another sign of the approaching election, it was unsurprising this week to see Rishi Sunak doing his belated best to scramble on board the law and order bandwagon.

In a series of announcements on the topic, the Prime Minister pledged a judge-led public inquiry into the crimes of Lucy Letby, convicted of the murders of seven babies who were in her care.

In a parallel move, Sunak promised new legislation to force killers like Letby to appear in the dock to hear their sentences and face the families of their victims. This announcement came after the nurse, and a string of other recent murderers, caused outrage by cowering in their cells, rather than appearing in court to learn their fate. In a further toughening of the laws against murders, the government also announced that whole-life jail tariffs could be extended to cover those killings that are especially sadistic or of a sexual nature.

Sunak’s announcements fail to explain why the Tories have only got round to properly addressing the issue now

In the wake of this week’s Notting Hill Carnival which saw eight people stabbed, and a youth running through crowds brandishing a machete, Sunak also announced a ban on zombie-style knives and machetes which have often been used in the epidemic of knife crime disfiguring London in recent years.

Sunak’s law and order promises follow hard on the heels of Home Secretary Suella Braverman telling the police to follow up even the most minor offences, after the revelation that they were failing to solve or even sometimes investigate crimes like burglaries and thefts of vehicles. Instead, some officers appear to prefer hunting down those who have expressed anti-woke sentiments on social media.

The head of the capital’s much criticised Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, apparently reversed the Met’s right-on excesses this week when he voiced a sudden shift to upholding the law by suggesting that he wouldn’t tolerate his officers taking the knee, flying rainbow flags, or supporting environmental protests while they were on duty.

While it is welcome to hear a nominally Conservative government and police officers announce some actual conservative measures for once, among the questions that arise are: why now, and why has it taken so long for the Tories to respond to growing public concern over mounting crime from murders, rapes and muggings down to so called ‘trivial’ offences like shoplifting and the stealing of phones and bicycles?

It’s pretty obvious why Sunak is pledging a raft of law and order measures at this precise moment. With an election pending in a year or so, and still lagging some 20 per cent behind Labour in the polls, looking tough on crime is a painless way of appealing to both traditional Tories and socially conservative Red Wall voters alike.

But Sunak’s announcements fail to explain why the Tories – who have been in power since 2010 – have only got round to properly addressing the issue now. If they truly shared people’s fears and outrage over unpunished and unsolved crimes, why haven’t they done something about it years ago?

Unless the Tories get serious about crime and follow up their words with effective deeds, the public may be forgiven for cynically judging that the Tories’ sudden conversion to a hard line on crime is at best insincere opportunism, and at worst an effusion of hot and empty air.