Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the respect orders were a “simple but effective” way of tackling anti-social behaviour, which “blights communities”.
He told Radio Bristol the measure had “teeth” as people who breached orders could be arrested.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the orders were “effectively a modernised version” of the Asbo – anti-social behaviour orders which were first introduced by Tony Blair’s New Labour government in the 1990s.
Pressed over the difference between the two, she told Breakfast police would get stronger powers to respond to anti-social behaviour with officers able to arrest persistent offenders.
She added that respect orders would not apply to children as “that didn’t work” in the past.
Asbos were scrapped in England and Wales by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, with then-Home Secretary Theresa May arguing they were too bureaucratic and criminalised young people without rehabilitating offenders.
However, they are still used in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Cooper was also challenged over whether police had the time and resources to deal with anti-social behaviour effectively, with more than one million incidents recorded last year.
She said the government was promising 13,000 more neighbourhood police and community support officers, who would be focused on targeting “the most prolific offenders”.
