Tories to extend school exclusions

Troublemakers as young as four face exclusion from classrooms under Tory plans to nip crime in the bud.

Shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin is spelling out the proposal today in a keynote speech on tackling youth crime.

He believes the current system allows badly-behaved children, often from broken homes or with drug-using parents, to carry on along a "conveyer belt to crime" until it is far too late.

Instead, teachers could assess infants when they arrive at primary school and those most likely to disrupt lessons could be offered special help away from the classroom - perhaps by state-funded church or charity projects.

His speech, to the Centre for Policy Studies in London, is a bid to trump Tony Blair who yesterday reaffirmed his commitment to shaking up the youth justice system. In his speech, Mr Letwin says: " Academic research on both sides of the Atlantic has grown to support the evidence that the seeds of future offending are sown in infancy. The evidence also shows that the single most important ingredient in a young child's life is the quality of his or her parenting.

"Currently, in many cases, the ladder is kicked from under the children's feet before they even learn to walk." Mr Letwin also backed Texas-style "boot camps", where teenage offenders are subjected to military discipline and training. He claims such initiatives can pay for themselves if they succeed in cutting crime rates.

The Prime Minister yesterday said that next month's White Paper on crime and sentencing would aim at ensuring that more criminals are punished.

He promised to scrap the double jeopardy law, which prevents suspects from being tried twice for the same offence, and to put victims first. But critics said he was just reannouncing previous pledges.

The Tories have seized on the law and order issue at a time when crime figures are rising. Statistics due next month will show a year-onyear rise in crime, with street robberies in London a particular problem.

At the same time, Mr Letwin has faced criticism from some Tory hardliners for trying to shift the party towards a more thoughtful approach to tackling the causes of crime.