A future Tory government would put thousands of additional police officers on the capital's streets, the party has pledged.

Shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin launched the latest policy announcement on Thursday in a bid to increase the party's profile in London.

Letwin promised that the Conservatives will put 8482 extra police on the streets on top of current government plans.

"We must police London and other cities as intensively as the Americans police theirs, and provide true neighbourhood policing," Letwin said.

"It is only by doing this that we can regain our streets for the honest citizen and get to grips with crime, which has soared by 20 per cent in some parts of the capital during the last three years."

Letwin also claimed that his proposals are fully-costed and can be made to work.

"We will make the funding available through savings resulting from our policy of scrapping the existing asylum system and replacing it with a rational quota based system for refugees," said a party spokesman.

He accused the government of failing to make an impact on crime in London and highlighted the human cost by meeting victims.

The party is keen to regain the law and order agenda from a government that has claimed it is "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime".

"An effective system of neighbourhood policing is vital to reclaiming our streets for the honest citizen," said a party spokesman.

"We need a level of attention to the timely identification, analysis and effective resolution of street crime and disorder not witnessed in our police forces today."

It is focusing on what Letwin describes as building a "neighbourly society" - partly an attempt to move away from the Thatcherite mantra that there is no such thing as society.

With mayoral elections set for next year, the party will be looking to improve its showing.

London was central in boosting Tony Blair's two general election victories and the Conservatives will have to end Labour's strongholds in the capital to make progress.

The shadow home secretary took his campaign to Brixton yesterday where he challenged the notion that the Tories are a party of "leafy suburbs and rural shires".

"The Conservative Party is committed and has to be committed to a fair deal for everyone - no-one held back and no-one left behind," he said.

"To fulfil that commitment, the Conservative Party has to be the party of the inner cities."