Tory big guns were sent to Bradford today to bring crime to the top of the election agenda.

Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe stopped off in Thornton to visit the home of a victim of burglary, as the Tories stepped up their campaign - with crime a major issue.

Miss Widdecombe - who was also visiting Halifax and Harrogate today - was told how Pam McCullam had become a terrified victim just two weeks after she moved into her new home. Mrs McCullam's small cottage in Thornton village was the subject of a burglary - and she told the shadow Home Secretary how unimpressed with the justice system she was.

She claimed culprits had been apprehended by police, but had not been prosecuted.

A concerned Miss Widdecombe listened intently as the pensioner told of her plight.

Miss Widdecombe said: "There's a lot of anger about crime. People say the police don't bother - it's not that they don't bother, but there's not enough of them. You have to get officer numbers up and create deterrents, and follow it through."

Miss Widdecombe told how she believed no crime should be ignored and youngsters should be apprehended at an early age to prevent them going on to commit more serious offences.

Miss Widdecombe chatted with Mrs McCallum over a glass of home-made Elderberry wine, which the confirmed Tory voter had brewed in 1997, the year Labour came to power. She spent around half an hour in the glare of the media as the campaign trail rolled into Bradford.

Miss Widdecombe professed her admiration for the work of the New York police department and its tough mayor Rudi Giulliani, who has made zero tolerance a key element of his terms of office.

But she steered clear of pronouncing herself ready to introduce zero tolerance into Britain's judicial system.