Helping Sussex families stay together will do more to tackle yobs and gangs than Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, Tory leader David Cameron has said.

Mr Cameron, in an interview with The Argus, branded ASBOs "gimmicks" because they failed to encourage people to behave responsibly.

Rather than slapping the orders on teenagers "like confetti", councils should instead focus on cleaning up the streets, which he claimed would improve behaviour and cut crime.

He said the Government needed to "create a culture" which strengthened families and fostered responsible behaviour rather than coming up with "short-term approaches".

This meant encouraging marriage, giving people more control over how taxpayers' money was spent locally and getting people off benefits and into work.

Mr Cameron told The Argus: "We have to look at the long term problem.

"Why are gangs so prevalent in our cities? It's because our borders are insecure and guns are coming in and it's because of family breakdown taking place so badly in so many of our communities.

"We need to have politicians prepared to do the long term patient work, helping to create a culture that is family friendly and encourages people to come together and stay together rather than endlessly churning out new headline-generating gimmicks."

But, asked whether he would scrap ASBOs, Mr Cameron said he "certainly wouldn't".

He said: "They have their uses and in some cases they are the right thing to use. But in some areas they are handed out like confetti and when they are breached nothing happens.

"What matters if you are going to put on an ASBO and they're breached is you have to take action. Otherwise they become meaningless."

Celia Barlow, Labour MP for Hove and Portslade, accused Mr Cameron of being "completely out of touch" with public opinion and said ASBOs had helped improve the lives of hundreds of Sussex families blighted by nuisance behaviour.

She said: "From 1999 to 2005, about 250 ASBOs have been issued by Sussex courts, nearly 100 in Brighton and Hove alone.

"I have seen personally how the use of Asbos has transformed the lives of law-abiding constituents who had previously been at the mercy of noise, abuse and other anti-social behaviour.

"David Cameron has shown himself to be completely out of touch with the concerns of voters with his calls to show louts more 'love', while dismissing our anti-social behaviour measures as gimmicks.

"He has no policies to deal with the problems facing ordinary people."

ASBOs, which last at least two years, can prohibit offenders from committing specific anti-social acts, going to certain areas or hanging out with other troublemakers.

Breaching an ASBO is a criminal offence, punishable by up to five years in jail.

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