In a get-tough stance on crime Boris Johnson is to beef-up police stop-and-search powers.

He’s also looking to increase prison places.

Backing his newly appointed Home Secretary Priti Patel, Mr Johnson said criminals should be “afraid, rather than the public”.

Plans to add an extra 20,000 police officers to the force have been reinforced with a £2.5 billion investment to create an extra 10,000 new places in jail.

Citing the rapid rise in knife crime – and soaring murder rate – Mr Johnson said:

“We have the impression of a growing culture of insolence on the part of the thugs; and in the face of that sense of impunity – entirely misplaced – I believe the British public knows instinctively what we must do,” he said.

“We need to come down hard on crime. That means coming down hard on criminals. We need to reverse the balance of fear. I want the criminals to be afraid – not the public.”

Stop-and-search powers will be extended to a further 8,000 officers in England and Wales.

Accepting the move was controversial, Mr Johnson said: “We are making clear that the police can and should make use of their stop-and-search powers.

“I know that left-wing criminologists will object. And, of course, it is right that stop-and-search should be done courteously and in accordance with the law.

“But I also know that the people who back this intervention most fervently are often the parents of the kids who are so tragically foolish as to go out on the streets equipped with a knife, endangering not only the lives of others but their own.”