Yvette Cooper refused to rule out cuts to policing budgets despite pledging to put more officers on the streets.

The Home Secretary, speaking just hours after addressing the Labour Party conference, claimed the Labour Government must “fix the foundations” of the economy.

The Home Office is one of the “unprotected” Government departments, meaning Chancellor Rachel Reeves could use the upcoming Spending Review to claw back cash from the department.

And Ms Cooper, asked three times to rule out cuts, dodged the questions.

She said: “One of the things we’ve been doing in the Home Office, is identifying the savings we should be making from clearing the asylum backlog, dealing with the huge overspend, the billions of pounds that were being spent.”

Asked again, by Sky News, if the Home Office could be forced to slash its own budgets, the Home Secretary said: “It’s not for me to pre-empt the spending review, but what we are doing is making sure we can save money on things where the Conservatives have failed, but also investing to make sure we can get 13,000 police and PCSOs on the streets that we set out in the manifesto.”

Pressed again over police budgets, Ms Cooper said: “I’m not going to pre-empt the spending review. You wouldn’t expect me to. But what I can say, is we focused on, what are the missions for this Labour Government?

“One of them is about getting neighbourhood police back onto our streets. You’ve heard the Chancellor and the Prime Minister say that we are not going to go back to austerity.

“What we are going to have to do is fix the foundations and get growth in the economy. That is the best way of improving public services.”

Ms Cooper said the riots in August should not “silence a serious debate” on immigration.

But she claimed the Conservatives are becoming “right-wing wreckers”.

The Home Secretary condemned the disorder that broke out in parts of the country following a knife attack at a Southport dance studio on July 29 that left three girls dead.

Ms Cooper labelled the incidents “arson”, “racism” and “thuggery” before saying she was “shocked” by the response from some in “political parties on the right who once claimed to care about law and order”.

Speaking at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Ms Cooper said she had spoken to children about their experiences when the Spellow Hub library was set on fire during disorder on County Road in the city.

She said: “One told me how scared she was that night, how her mum switched off all the lights in the house, and told her to stay quiet and sit on the stairs as bins were set alight along her street.

“So don’t anyone tell me that was protest. Don’t tell me that was about immigration or policing or poverty.

“Plenty of people have strong views on immigration, on crime, on the NHS and more, but they don’t pick up bricks and throw them at the police. They don’t set light to buildings with people inside.

“It was arson. It was racism. It was thuggery. It was crime.”

Turning to political parties “on the right”, Ms Cooper said they should have given “full-throated backing to our brave” police officers.

She said: “Instead, too often we’ve seen them undermine the integrity and authority of the police, even making excuses for the mob.

“If you remember back in the run-up to Armistice Day last year, disgraceful slurs made against the police, which made it harder for them to do their job, were treated as a sacking offence for a Tory home secretary.

“A year on, those same slurs have become an article of faith for every Tory leadership contender. It is shameful what that party has become.

“The Tories, with their mates in Reform, are just becoming right-wing wreckers – undermining respect for the law, trying to fracture the very bonds that keep communities safe. They have nothing to offer but fear, division and anger.”

Ms Cooper highlighted the Government’s work on border security, adding that working with other countries was better than standing “on the shoreline shouting at the sea”.

She added: “Nor will we let disorder and violence silence a serious debate on immigration, something that has been missing for too long amid the chaos, the gimmicks and the damaging, ramped-up rhetoric.

“A serious government sees that net migration has trebled because overseas recruitment has soared while training has been cut right back, and says net migration must come down as we properly train young people here in the UK.

“A serious government sees an asylum system in chaos and says we have to clear the backlog and end asylum hotels.”

Ms Cooper went on: “And a serious government looks at the criminal gangs who are profiting from undermining our border security while women and children are crushed to death in crowded, flimsy, small boats and says the gangs have got away with it for too long – we will not stand for this vile trade in human lives.”

Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly MP told the Daily Express: “As Home Secretary, I took action to reduce knife crime and violence, and brought down migration levels. Less talk, more action.

“On the day that the zombie knife ban I brought into law comes into effect, the new Home Secretary can only manage more empty words.

“The Home Secretary talks about the rule of law, but she doesn’t properly back the Police to do their jobs.

“She talks about tackling people smuggling gangs, but has scrapped our deterrent. She talks about tackling crime but voted against swathes of legislation to do so when she was in opposition.

“The Labour Party have shown that they don’t have a plan to tackle the issues that our country is facing; they are all talk when it comes to tackling crime and bringing down migration levels. It is only too obvious that talk won’t translate into action.”