Police will not have to make choices about which crimes they investigate following the Government’s spending review, Rachel Reeves has signalled.
Senior police chiefs and Government watchdogs have written to the Prime Minister warning they will be forced to make difficult choices if spending cuts are announced by the Chancellor next Wednesday.
In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Mark Rowley – the head of the Metropolitan Police – and other senior chiefs, warned cuts to police budgets will have “far-reaching consequences”, according to the Times newspaper.
Meanwhile, in a separate letter, Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales Dame Nicole Jacobs and Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales Baroness Helen Newlove wrote to Sir Keir saying victim support services are being “pushed to the brink”, hit by funding cuts and rising costs.
But the Chancellor sought to ease the worries of police leaders.
Speaking in Rochdale, Ms Reeves told reporters: “We will be increasing spending on police in the spending review next week, so that’s not a decision… or a choice that I would recognise.”
The letter from the police chiefs said negotiations between the Treasury and the Home Office were going “poorly”.
It read: “A settlement that fails to address our inflation and pay pressures would entail stark choices about which crimes we no longer prioritise.”
Last week, senior police officers – including Sir Mark – wrote a letter in the Times calling for “serious investment” in the spending review, which will set out the Government’s day-to-day departmental budgets for the next three years.
“A lack of investment will bake in the structural inefficiencies for another three years and will lose a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the service,” the letter warned.
Dame Nicole and Baroness Newlove welcomed Sir Keir’s “personal commitment to halving violence against women and girls within a decade” in their letter, but said they are concerned “funding cuts and scaled back ambition are leading to piecemeal policies”.
They called for a “clear, well-funded national approach to prevent and respond to abuse, violence, and exploitation of women and girls”.
They added: “With bold and ambitious investment, we can finally tackle the systemic stain of violence and abuse, one that would see us get to grips with misogyny, ensure victims can recover from trauma, and build a criminal justice system that delivers for survivors every single time.”
On Wednesday, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander denied some of her Cabinet colleagues are engaged in a row over funding for the police.
“I’m not privy to any of those conversations,” she said, adding there is a “really collegiate atmosphere around the Cabinet table on the part of every single Cabinet member”.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are backing the police to protect our communities and keep our streets safe with up to £17.6 billion this year, an increase of up to £1.2 billion.
“This includes £200 million to kickstart putting 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers, PCSOs and special constables that the public will see back on their streets and patrolling communities, as part of our Plan for Change.”
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