Labour's warning of crime wave

The spectre of increased urban lawlessness will be raised today by shadow Chancellor Gordon Brown, writes Anthony Bevins.

Although the Government was able to take comfort from a fall in unemployment yesterday, it faced a Bank of England challenge on interest rates and the Wirral South by-election campaign was dominated by Unilever's warning on European Monetary Union.

Mr Brown will warn today that, "The re-election of the Tories would risk the creation of a fifth-term underclass that would take us down the road of America, with no-work and no-go inner city areas plagued by lawlessness."