Beaminster’s Public Hall hosted two Cabinet ministers when the Home Secretary visited West Dorset.

Theresa May and West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin, who is Minister of State for the Cabinet Office, mingled with local Tories at a get-together of the West Dorset Conservative Association.

Mrs May was greeted by association chairman Fred Horsington before meeting party members including Nick King, Conservative candidate for the forthcoming Police and Crime Commissioner’s post in Dorset.

Mrs May said she was delighted to be in West Dorset in a week when a number of things had gone down, including unemployment, borrowing and crime.

“There is now less chance of being a victim of crime than there has been since the crime survey began,” she said.

“It is good news and it shows the chief constables are doing what we have asked them to do which is to do more with less money.

“And they have taken that opportunity to say “how can we better fight crime?”

“We are seeing good results and the front line is being protected.”

Mrs May said that the fight against crime was not just about the number of police officers.

“It is not about numbers, but it is about how you deploy them,” she insisted.

“If they are sitting in a station filling in forms they are not going to do much good in the fight against crime.”

Mrs May urged people to vote in the November 15 Police and Crime Commissioner election, saying it signalled the most significant democratic reform in policing in our time.

“Individuals will know that if they have a problem there will be someone they can go to.

“This election matters because it is about cutting crime and giving people a local voice.”

Mr Letwin thanked Mrs May for coming and joked that he and Mr King would be plotting together about going to ask her for more money for policing in Dorset, where the amount spent per head at £80 is some £35 less than the national average.