We will protect adults who tackle yobs, pledge Tories

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve pledged safeguards for those who challenge anti-social behaviour by youngsters.

He said public-spirited adults could sort out minor incidents themselves if they were not held back by the fear of ending up in court. "The public seem to have become tremendously willing to go running off to the police to bleat about the most minor matters," said Mr Grieve.

"They also say, 'Oh well, if I try to stop that, someone will come round to arrest me.'"

Mr Grieve said as a result police were burdened with relatively trivial matters. Giving people the confidence to tackle the problems would free up officers to target serious crime.

"Most of the complaints being made by the public are about quite low level anti-social behaviour issues about children and adolescents," he told the Independent.

He pledged that a Tory government would rewrite guidelines for police and prosecutors "within days".

Labour today signalled that it will give the public a say on how local hooligans are punished for low-level anti-social behaviour.

A Green Paper will propose that judges and magistrates could be told to have meetings with community groups to hear ideas for punishments.