Liz Truss has vowed to make sure police officers are spending their time investigating "real crimes" and "not Twitter rows and hurt feelings".

The Tory leader contender has set ambitious goals for the police force, including reducing murder rates by a fifth. 

Other targets include a 20 per cent reduction in serious violence and "neighbourhood crime". 

Truss spoke of her commitment to a shift in priorities in an article for The Express newspaper.

"It's also now time for the police to get back to basics and spend their time investigating real crimes – murder, burglary and serious violence, not Twitter rows and hurt feelings," she said. 

"We will hold the police, and their senior leadership, to account on the progress they are making.

"We will publish league tables. If they are doing poorly, they will need to explain, both to the Home Secretary and to you, how they will turn things around." 

Her comments follow the release of updated guidance by the College of Policing on how officers should deal with non-crime hate incidents. 

The new interim guidance seeks to protect people who are engaging in "legitimate debate", and "redress the balance between freedom of speech and protecting vulnerable members of the public". 

It has been released ahead of a new code of practice being developed by the Home Office due out later this year.