The Shadow Home Secretary said her priority would be to get police “back on the streets”.

Yvette Cooper MP visited Golders Green yesterday with Sarah Sackman, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Finchley and Golders Green.

The pair visited the Community Security Trust, a charity which provides security for the Jewish community, where they were briefed on the situation in north London following the Paris terror attacks last week, before visiting people living in Corringham Road.

Questions were put to the Labour frontbencher about her party’s plans for crime and policing.

Ms Cooper said she was concerned that police cuts meant neighbourhood policing was being lost, and that her priority would be to get police “back on the streets”.

She explained how the party was looking at ways to prevent further police officers being cut – which included saving £50m by abolishing elected Police and Crime Commissioners, and £20m by scrapping subsidies for gun licences.

Speaking afterwards, Ms Cooper praised the Community Security Trust's work, and said that “everyone should feel safe in the community they live.”

Asked whether security should be stepped up in the wake of the Paris attacks, in which 17 people were killed, she said: “We know there’s an ongoing threat in Britain, and it’s really important it’s taken seriously. The best thing is to prevent people being drawn into hatred.”

On the issue of the rise in anti-Semitism in north London, she said: “We have to stand firm against hate crimes. I think more does need to be done in terms of social media and taking responsibility for things.”

Asked how the police in Barnet could improve people’s confidence in them – after data showed the borough was in the bottom ten in London – she said a return to more neighbourhood policing would increase people’s trust, and that communities needed to be given more responsibilities for policing from the mayor’s office.

Discussing the meeting with the CST, Sarah Sackman said the charity had explained how it had been “inundated” with calls from people worried that the Paris attacks could be replicated in London, and that there had been an increase in security.

She added: “There are concerns amongst the community. It’s very real, people have been telling me they feel it’s personal. It’s important to assuage that fear.”