Bad parents fuel crime says mayor

Ken Livingstone was questioned by the Home Affairs Select Committee

Many parents fail to raise their children with a sense of right and wrong, the mayor of London has said.

When questioned by MPs, Ken Livingstone said schools were increasingly having to instil a "moral code" in children.

He said Margaret Thatcher's government had helped create a generation of selfish people.

The Home Affairs Select Committee was examining modern policing and heard from Tory mayoral hopeful Boris Johnson and Lib Dem candidate Brian Paddick.

I do think society has a duty through its parents and through its schools to give a basic moral code. Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London

Mr Livingstone said: "I do think you are looking at a generation today - and I know this is controversial - these are the children of the kids that grew up in the 80s.

"When society was talking about 'get your snout in the trough', 'there's no such thing as society', 'look after Number One'."

He added: "I do think society has a duty, through its parents and through its schools, to give a basic moral code and I think a lot of parents don't do that, they didn't get it themselves."

Mr Livingstone rejected figures quoted by one committee member suggesting violent crime had risen during his time as mayor.

Also giving evidence to the committee, Mr Johnson said: "What the mayor said about the climate of disorder and incivility as a result of deep social changes or whatever his analysis was, I think that's true.

"In the sense that we have the problem - I don't necessarily agree with his analysis. But I think it's up to the mayor to do something about it."

Brian Paddick, a former Metropolitan Police commander, said Mr Livingstone had failed to match his pledges on crime reduction.

Monitoring released prisoners

Mr Livingstone also announced a Neighbourhood Pathways initiative aimed at cutting re-offending by monitoring neighbourhoods prisoners return to when released from jail.

The plan involves allocating additional officers to Safer Neighbourhood Teams and supporting organisations to resettle returning offenders.

Mr Livingstone said: "We know that 64% of offenders re-offend within two years of a prison sentence.

"A multi-agency, targeted approach, based in local hot spots where there are high numbers of offenders returning, will help increase safety and security for local people in neighbourhoods across London."

The proposal, which was developed with the Met, has been submitted to the Ministry of Justice for approval.

The Green Party's mayoral candidate, Sian Berry, said: "Ken Livingstone is gradually getting the message - we do need to focus on prevention and community policing, and that means we need more officers for Safer Neighbourhood Teams."