CONSERVATIVES are claiming crime rates across the country are soaring, despite government claims that the war against crime is being won.

But research commissioned by the Tories has revealed that crime rates in the county are continuing to plummet.

The figures released today cover April to September, 1999 and show a 9.2 per cent drop on the previous year.

Lancashire police have had major successes in fighting crime and Chief Constable Pauline Clare has pledged to reduce the figures even more next year.

The Conservative's claim cuts in police budgets are having a direct impact on the number of crimes committed.

And they say national crime rates have risen by an average of five per cent over the last year.

Despite the bleak nationwide picture, the North West has the best record in the country, with a five per cent fall in crime. Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe, said: "These alarming figures expose the lie at the heart of Labour's promise to be tough on crime.

"Tony Blair and Jack Straw have squandered a legacy of crime reduction and now preside over an alarming upsurge in crime in our towns, cities and rural communities."

Mrs Widdecombe added: "Jack Straw has slashed police budgets and cut police numbers, dealing a hammer blow to police morale.

"You cannot have fewer officers with less resources and also have less crime - it is not a complex equation but one that appears to have escaped this hopeless Home Secretary.

"As the thin blue line has got thinner and thinner under Labour, thousands more people have become the innocent victims of crime in their homes and on our streets."

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