Labour pledged yesterday to scrap police and crime commissioners (PCCs) and give powers to communities instead.

The proposal was revealed by shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper just days after South Yorkshire PCC Shaun Wright, who ran as a Labour candidate, finally stepped down.

He had embarrassed the party by refusing to resign over the child abuse scandal in Rotherham where he once served as head of children’s services.

Mr Wright quit the party but hung on in his £85,000 post for three weeks before stepping down.

Ms Cooper said that the coalition’s introduction of directly-elected PCCs in 2012 had not worked and that scrapping the next round of PCC elections in 2016 would save £50 million, which could be ploughed back into front-line policing.

Instead Labour would give local residents a “policing contract” to decide priorities in their area such as the number of bobbies on the beat.