06.06.17
Khan: Met could lose over 12,000 officers under Tory spending plans
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has today warned that up to 12,800 constables could be taken off the street if the Conservatives come into power, despite the capital being hit by its second terrorist attacks in three months.
Khan claimed that the Metropolitan Police was not only facing cuts of £400m, but could face further losses of between £184m and £700m a year under Conservative plans to change the police funding formula. This could, he suggested, see the force being reduced by between 3,400 and 12,800 constables.
This is something that could make it even harder to defend London from being targeted by extremists in the future, as Khan vowed “I'm simply not willing to stand by and let that happen”.
“Our city has suffered two awful terrorist attacks since I was elected as mayor – and we must do everything possible to stop there being anymore,” Khan said.
“Police officers in our communities act as the eyes and ears of the security services, providing the intelligence and information that allows us to disrupt attempted terrorist attacks.
“Cuts on this scale would make it harder to foil future terrorist attacks on our city – and as the mayor of London I’m simply not willing to stand by and let that happen.”
Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick yesterday called on the government for more resources to allow the police to do their job in defending civilians from future incidents.
But foreign secretary and former mayor of London Boris Johnson dismissed Khan’s criticisms, saying that the counter terror budget had gone up by around 30% under the Conservatives.
Speaking to the BBC he said: “The mayor of London will know very well that over the preceding eight years, before he became mayor and when I was mayor we kept police numbers high – we kept them about 32,000, and crime came down quite considerably over that period.
“The numbers in London have been kept high. The issue is how we stop these people getting radicalised.”
Johnson also explained that counter-terrorism efforts were being increased by the government as more money was being invested in this area.
“We are not only increasing the number of armed officers now, we are putting another £500m into SAS, into MI5 and GCHQ,” he said.
Top Image: Yui Mok PA Wire
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