The speech in full

Chris Grayling called today for a "war" on anti-social behaviour, saying that it was time to "reclaim our streets" from gangs of youths.

The Shadow Home Secretary said that the “grotesque” attack on two boys aged nine and 11 by two young brothers in Doncaster last weekend was a wake-up call for “Broken Britain”.

In one of the toughest speeches since his appointment in January, Mr Grayling said minor crime committed by younger teenagers "so often lead to worse if it goes unchecked".

Mr Grayling also rounded on those youngsters who were "aided and abetted by parents who just don’t care".

The speech marked a final break for the Conservatives from Mr Cameron's initial youth crime strategy, which called for greater understanding of hoodie-wearing teenagers. In July 2006, the Tory leader told the Centre for Social Justice that young people needed "a lot more love".' Mr Cameron added: "So, when you see a child walking down the road, hoodie up, head down, moody, swaggering, dominating the pavement - think what has brought that child to that moment."

Speaking at the Policy Exchange think-tank this morning , Mr Grayling said that the Conservatives would not tolerate law-abiding people being made to feel like prisoners in their own homes. "In 21st-century Britain, that simply isn’t good enough," he said.

He said that the Conservatives would reduce bureaucracy in order to free up police time to allow them to better tackle anti-social behaviour. He would also give the police the "right powers" to deal with it.

Mr Grayling wants police to be given more discretion in dealing with young people and for “instant community punishments” for serious antisocial behaviour. Head teachers should also be given powers to exclude pupils and not have their decisions overruled.

Schools should have a much “tougher” approach to indiscipline and adults who allow youngsters to misbehave, by selling them alcohol or drugs, should face stiffer penalties.

Parents would also be forced to take a bigger role. "I want to see parents who lack responsibility and purpose gradually learn it again," he said.

"I want to set strict limits to youthful exuberance so that, when it turns to something more problematic, there are clear consequences."

However Mr Grayling made clear that the Conservatives were anxious not to criminalise all bad behaviour: "Kicking a ball against a wall is not automatically antisocial. Making a noise is not automatically antisocial. Sometimes it’s all just a bit of a nuisance. And not a police matter."

He said that the Doncaster attacks provided a stark snapshot of Britain’s broken society. He added: “The incident in Doncaster this week should serve as a wake-up call for our nation.

“Thankfully, events as grotesque as this one involving such young children remain pretty rare. But violence between children is becoming too much of a norm.

“The event in Doncaster is only the latest and probably the worst example of a whole series of incidents where children are killing or maiming other children.

“Knife murders of teenagers by other teenagers have become all too commonplace on the streets of some of our cities.”

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