Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, has warned Theresa May that she will put public safety at risk if she agrees to cut the policing budget by more than 5% over the next five years in next week’s spending review.
In a letter to the home secretary, Burnham said the Paris attacks had shown the dangers of forcing the police to make higher efficiency savings.
He wrote: “I welcome the funding that the government has found for the security services but this cannot be seen in isolation from policing. If the government proceeds with the proposed cuts, it would be a serious misjudgment and would put public safety at risk.”
Burnham’s intervention follows a warning by Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan police commissioner, that he would “start to get worried” if he had to cut police numbers below 30,000. “If we could keep at least 30,000 cops, I can make this city safe,” he told LBC radio. “If it’s below that, I start to get worried.”
Hogan-Howe warned last week that cuts of more than 10% to the police budget would harm his ability to fight terrorism on the streets of London. Ian Blair, his predecessor as commissioner, said losing police community support officers would be a disaster.
Burnham sent his letter as the home secretary enters the final stage of her negotiations with George Osborne over her budget before next Wednesday’s spending review. The chancellor has asked cabinet ministers to draw up savings in areas where spending is not protected under two scenarios – 25% and 40%.
The home secretary is one of the final cabinet ministers who has yet to reach an agreement with the Treasury, which suggests that she is holding out for a better deal. The chancellor has so far reached agreement with 11 out of 20 of the main Whitehall departments which will deliver cumulative cuts of 24% by 2019-20 and deliver more than £4bn in savings.
Burnham says the cuts to police should be far lower – no more than 5% over the next five years. Referring to the chancellor’s modelling of spending cuts at 25% or 40%, he wrote: “As I am sure you would agree, cuts anywhere near this scale to the police service budget would have a devastating effect, with thousands more police officers lost and neighbourhood policing decimated. I remain firmly of the view that efficiency savings up to 5% are achievable, but that anything above that is more difficult. This view has only been strengthened following the attacks in Paris.
“I believe it is essential that we work to protect frontline officers and neighbourhood policing. We know that significant intelligence is gathered through community policing which aids the fight against extremism and terrorism. At a time when the threat of a terrorist attack in the UK is heightened, now is not the time to reduce the ability of the police to build important local relationships and gather that intelligence.”
The home secretary warned last week there was “no escaping” the fact that the next round of Home Office spending cuts would mean “fewer people, fewer buildings and less room for error” for police and immigration services. But she is understood to be fighting hard to resist some cuts.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has written to Osborne to try to reach a cross-party agreement on police funding. McDonell said he would agree with Osborne to exempt police numbers from the rules governing his new fiscal charter.
