Mayor of London statement on police funding settlement

In response to today’s police funding settlement announcement, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:

“Londoners will be furious at the government’s announcement today. The additional funding represents a tiny fraction of the huge government cuts to the Met Police since 2010 and will mean the number of police officers in London will continue to fall over the years ahead.

“We’ve had months of warm words from the Home Secretary about the desperate need for more government funding in order to tackle violent crime, but the government have fundamentally failed to back that up with real money. The harsh reality is that the government is shunting the cost of policing onto London council taxpayers, which will not fill the massive financial black hole and will hit London’s poorest hardest.

“Eight years of government cuts have already led to London losing more than 3,000 police officers and more than 3,000 community support officers. Ministers’ failure to reverse those damaging cuts today means we now face the very real prospect of officer numbers falling to a 16-year low and I’m hugely concerned about how we continue to keep Londoners safe with so few officers, an increased terror threat and rising population.”

ENDS