Dark streets are endangering people’s lives, experts warned yesterday as new data showed Con-Dem cuts have plunged huge swathes of Britain into darkness.

A whopping 1.36 million street lamps are either off or dimmed at night, compared with just 148,000 in May 2010, before the Tories swept to power.

Lamps are usually controlled by local councils who have seen them as an easy target when compared with libraries and social care as central government-imposed budget cuts hit local services.

New figures obtained by Labour show just 35 out of 141 councils who replied are keeping their lamps at full strength.

A sizeable 42 are both switching them off more frequently and dimming lamps to save on electricity bills.

Labour shadow communities and local government secretary Hilary Benn slammed his stingy Tory counterpart Eric Pickles for slashing council budgets by 40 per cent since taking office in 2010.

“Street lights ensure that people are safe on our roads and feel safe walking home, especially at this time of the year when the nights have drawn in,” he said.

The AA said the cuts were causing a rise in traffic accidents — and said motorists should switch their headlights to full beam to make up.

“Statistically the accident rate on roads where street lights are switched off or are unlighted in towns and cities continues to go up, and it’s particularly bad on roads which are 40mph or faster,” spokesman Luke Bosdet said.

And RP Fighting Blindness, a charity which raises money for research into Retinitis Pigmentosa, said that 80 per cent of people with the condition had no sight at all in dim conditions.

“This night blindness is bad enough in dim street lighting and of course far worse where street lighting is removed,” chief executive David Head said.

But in a bizarre outburst, local government minister Brandon Lewis, a junior to Mr Pickles, accused Labour of “complete hypocrisy” for allegedly encouraging councils to turn off lamps as part of their “climate change zealotry.”

“This government values the role of street lighting — but it should be a local decision, street by street, on what local residents actually want in their neighbourhood,” he smarmed.