Cut net zero and welfare spending instead of police budget, Tory MP blasts
The shadow home secretary has slammed the Labour government amid mounting speculation police budgets are on the chopping block in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spending review.
Chris Philp told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg he believes police funding should be protected from cuts following concerns of a shrinking workforce.
“I think I’m very concerned that police numbers may fall already this current financial year, so before this spending review, we are seeing police numbers falling,” Philp said.
He added the Met Police in London “is going to have to” cut 1,500 police officers and “the same story is going to play out across the country”.
This follows the head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the head of the National Crime Agency writing to the Prime Minister to warn of “stark choices about which crimes we no longer prioritise” if their funding plea is ignored.
The Conservative shadow minister said it was “extraordinary” Labour had hit the country with “the biggest tax rises in a generation and yet…. we are likely to see police numbers, indeed we are seeing right now, police numbers falling.”
In order to maintain the workforce, Philp said he would target welfare reform and green energy plans for spending cuts.
“Ed Miliband is proposing to spend £37bn on his various green plans, including buying huge numbers of solar panels from China, with which he plans to cover the British countryside, while at the same time shutting down oil and gas in the North Sea.”
Reeves fiscal strategy likened to Apple’s Steve Jobs
Meanwhile, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle refused to rule out spending cuts to a fleet of government departments and said police are expected to “do their bit”.
Kyle told the BBC “every part of our society is struggling” as he declined to comment on real-terms spending cuts.
The cabinet minister was grilled on cuts to the housing department, headed up by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, and home affairs, led by home secretary Yvette Cooper.
He cited “the inheritance” left from the previous Conservative government as driving struggles across the country.
But Kyle said police would be expected to “start embracing the change they need to do, to do their bit for change as well. We are doing our bit.”
He added: “You will see the priorities of this government reflected in the spending review, which sets the departmental spending into the long term.
“But this is a partnership. Yes, the Treasury needs to find more money for those key priorities, but the people delivering them need to do their bit as well.”
Kyle also compared Rachel Reeves’ managing public finances to Steve Jobs’ role in the turnaround of Apple as it faced insolvency.
“Bear in mind how Apple turned itself around… when Steve Jobs came back to Apple, they were 90 days from insolvency.
“That’s the kind of situation that we had when we came into office. Now Steve Jobs turned it around by inventing the iMac, moving to a series of products like the iPod,” Kyle told Sky News.