‘Boris backs taskforce to take on lockdown dognappers’

He wants to focus on crime and the recovery from Covid.

Boris Johnson is hoping to turn attention away from a string of damaging allegations about Tory ‘sleaze’ onto a crime crackdown – including battling dognapping.

Ahead of next week’s elections, the Prime Minister says he has ‘no doubt’ that the economy ‘will bounce back strongly’ and is promising to ‘bring the hammer down hard on the gangs’.

But he is also planning a new initiative to combat a rise in dogs being stolen.

His pitch to voters come as two new surveys suggested the Conservatives’ lead over Labour has been cut ahead of key local elections in England and votes for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments. The polls will raise concerns among Tories that recent allegations about reported comments by the Prime Minister and renovating his flat are voters.

The Electoral Commission this week launched an investigation into whether any donations or loans to pay for the lavish refurbishment of his Downing Street flat were properly declared.

Mr Johnson was also forced to deny saying he would rather see ‘bodies pile high’ than impose a third coronavirus lockdown, on top of a lobbying row and allegations of cronyism.

The Prime Minister used an article for The Mail on Sunday to say he would ‘bring the hammer down hard on the gangs’ and set up a ‘pet theft task force’.

Mr Johnson wrote: ‘At present this crime is far too often dismissed as relatively trivial – on a par, say, with shoplifting.

‘I don’t agree. That is why the Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland has set up the Pet Theft Task Force, to make sure that the criminal justice system is dealing properly with anyone who is so malicious as to steal a dog.’

He added: ‘If you are cynical and nasty enough to steal a dog, in an organised gang, then you will almost certainly be party to other types of crime as well.’

Elsewhere, Mr Johnson said the roll-out of vaccines – one element of his pandemic handling which he has won praise for – was helping to ease restrictions ahead of further possible relaxations on May 17 and June 21.

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Mr Johnson said: ‘Week after week we are seeing how the vaccine rollout is helping to restore our freedoms – and with those freedoms I have absolutely no doubt that our economy will bounce back strongly.’

However, a fresh controversy emerged with The Sunday Times reporting an MP has received a complaint from a Tory donor that they were asked to pay for a nanny for Mr Johnson’s one-year-old son Wilfred.

The donor was alleged to have said: ‘I don’t mind paying for leaflets but I resent being asked to pay to literally wipe the Prime Minister’s baby’s bottom.’

A No 10 spokeswoman said: ‘The Prime Minister has covered the cost of all childcare.’

But she did not respond when asked if Mr Johnson paid for the original bill himself or had reimbursed somebody else.

Reports have suggested that a similar process may have taken place for the flat renovation.   

Mr Johnson has denied breaking any laws over the refurbishment of his official residence in No 11 and insisted he had paid ‘personally’ for the works.

But he has refused to say whether he received an initial loan from the Tory party, as Downing Street launched two separate reviews into the controversy.

Although earlier polls suggested the ‘sleaze’ allegations were not significantly denting public support for the Tories, fresh surveys suggest otherwise.

The Conservatives fell to a five-point lead over Labour, with 42% compared to 37%, according to the Opinium poll of more than 2,000 adults between Wednesday and Friday.

In separate polling, Focaldata put Labour on 39%, one point behind the Tories, who previously had a healthy lead, according to The Sunday Times.

Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said criminals had ‘never had it so good’ as under the Conservatives.

In response to Mr Johnson’s article, he said: ‘No wonder the Prime Minister is defensive on crime.

‘Violent crime has risen by a shocking 116 per cent since 2015, while the number of suspects charged has fallen by 26 per cent.

‘The Conservatives have had 11 years of talking tough and failing to deliver. The reality is that under the Conservatives criminals have never had it so good.’

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