Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has clashed with Rachel Reeves after appealing directly to Sir Keir Starmer for more funding in the Spending Review to fight crime.
Sir Mark, Gavin Stephens, the head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, and Graeme Biggar, the head of the National Crime Agency, wrote to the Prime Minister to warn him of “stark choices about which crimes we no longer prioritise” if their funding plea is ignored.
They also highlighted the risks of a “retrenchment to what we saw under austerity” if the Treasury does not budge on its police spending plans.
However, after a speech in Manchester and when asked which crimes the Government was happy for the police to ignore given the warning, Ms Reeves responded: “We will be increasing spending on police in the Spending Review next week.
“So that is not a choice that I would recognise.”
But in an appeal over the head of the Chancellor, the police chiefs stressed in their letter last Friday: “We understand that the Treasury (is) seeking to finalise departmental budget allocations this week and that the negotiations between the Home Office and the Treasury are going poorly.
“We are deeply concerned that the settlement for policing and the (NCA), without additional investment, risks a retrenchment to what we saw under austerity. This would have far-reaching consequences.”
They added: “A settlement that fails to address our inflation and pay pressures flat would entail stark choices about which crimes we no longer prioritise.The policing and NCA workforce would also shrink each year.”
But Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, who was on Wednesday announcing a series of projects for the North and Midlands, rejected the warning that police will be left without enough funding and suggested Sir Mark may not be up to speed with the latest Treasury plans.
“I don’t know that the head of the Metropolitan Police has been in the room discussing the Spending Review with the Home Secretary and the Chancellor in the last 24, 48 hours,” she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“I’m not pretending that the Chancellor has an easy job in allocating the money that is available,” she said earlier.
“We do have to live within our means but I do know that she is determined to make sure that whether it’s schools, the NHS, policing, that all of those parts of Government have the money that it needs.”
She confirmed that some Cabinet ministers are still in talks about their allocations in the Spending Review, next Wedneday, having settled her own departments on Monday.
They are said to include Home Secretary Yvette Cooper Housing Secretary Angela Rayner and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband.
“With respect to the police, we are absolutely clear as a Government that the first duty of any government is public safety and we will always ensure that police have the resources that they need to do the job,” she insisted, despite the warning from police chiefs.
“We did increase the policing budget by over £1 billion this year, taking it up to over £17 billion,” she added.
“At the election, we committed to recruiting more police officers, PCSOs, special constables, we have injected £200 million into the budget this year to start the work on doing that and to make sure that the police have the resources there to deliver on the people’s priorities.”
But the police are warning of more financial demands, partly due to the early release of thousands more prisoners, some of who will go on to reoffend, and pay pressures.
With spending on the NHS also due to rise, other departments including cash-strapped local government, are expected to be hit with a financial squeeze.
