"This would be another Tory failure on policing" - Abbott

Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, responding to comments from the chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: 

“The government urgently needs to explain how they are going to make good on their manifesto commitment to recruit 20,000 additional officers and what resources they are going to provide. There is a danger that the pledge on police numbers goes the same way as the pledge on nurses, where new recruits are not extra police at all. This would be another Tory failure on policing, after they were responsible for this crisis by axing more than 20,000 police officers.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

·       John Apter, national chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents rank-and-file officers, said the Government’s pledge to recruit 20,000 police officers was a “massive ask” and was welcome but presented a number of problems.

·       Speaking exclusively to the PA news agency, he claimed the 20,000 figure only re-dresses the losses forces have endured over the last decade.

·       To make a difference, to see that take effect in real terms and get that number of new police officers “through the door”, in fact up to 55,000 would need to be recruited to make up for those resigning and retiring each month, he claimed.