What Labour didn’t mention ... MORE cash to fight terror

Has the number of police officers fallen in recent years?

It is impossible to escape the fact that police numbers tumbled during Theresa May’s six-year stint as Home Secretary. Excluding long-term sick officers, police strength in England and Wales fell from 141,631 in March 2010 – the year the Tory-led Coalition came to power – to 118,779 last year, a drop of 16 per cent.

But including police community support officers (PCSOs), there are 129,822 uniformed personnel – 5,000 more than when Tony Blair came to power in 1997. Meanwhile, the total police workforce, including civilian staff, has dropped to 198,228 – the first time in a decade it has fallen below 200,000.

What about the number of firearms officers?

The Home Office says armed police have been cut by 19 per cent – from 6,976 in March 2010 to 5,639 last year, a loss of 1,337.

But following deadly attacks in France in 2015 and 2016, then prime minister David Cameron vowed to reverse the decline.

He made £144million available to train an extra 1,500 armed officers by 2021. They will be trained to respond to marauding attacks by gun and knife-wielding terrorists.

Added to 3,500 armed officers in the British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary, National Crime Agency and Ministry of Defence Police, the total will stand at around 10,500 – the highest number in history.

Why are so many officers being lost?

Between 1997-98 and the peak year of 2009-10, direct government funding for the police soared in real terms from £7.4billion to £9.5billion – 28 per cent.

Then the Government embarked on its austerity drive.

Central government funding to forces fell by £2.3billion – or 25 per cent – between 2010-11 and 2015-16.

But in his Spending Review in 2015, then chancellor George Osborne announced that police budgets would be protected in real terms, representing an increase of £900million in cash terms by 2019-20. It left Labour wrongfooted, as then shadow home secretary Andy Burnham said police budgets could be cut by 10 per cent.

Did the cuts lead to an increase in crime?

No. In the year to last December, there were 6.1million crimes, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales. The number has tumbled relentlessly from more than 19million in 1995. Crime levels were 33 per cent down on the 9.3million reported in 2009-10 – the last full year of the Labour government.

Ministers hailed the drop as vindication of their demand for improvements in performance, and for chief constables to do more with fewer resources.

Mrs May also oversaw the introduction of more technology to police forces – freeing up thousands of hours spent by bobbies doing paperwork.

Concerns about the cuts were raised again in March when HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, the independent watchdog, published a report that warned the state of policing was ‘perilous’. But the watchdog said the issues were not solely because of budget reductions, pointing the finger at unacceptable police practices in individual forces.

What about the security services?

As chancellor, George Osborne faced criticism for cutting the intelligence agencies’ budget by 12 per cent in 2011 and 2012.

But in 2015, he promised to spend £3.4billion extra on the country’s counter-terrorism efforts over five years – a rise of 30 per cent. It pushed spending on counter-terrorism and the security and intelligence agencies – MI5, MI6 and GCHQ – from £11.7billion to £15.1billion by 2020-21.

The Government also announced plans to ‘substantially’ increase the number of spies by more than 2,000 to help investigate and disrupt terrorist plots.

The new cash is being spent on ensuring the UK’s security forces are able to respond to a ‘marauding attack’ such as the one in Paris, improving information at border controls and increasing flight security at airports.

British intelligence agencies will expand their reach around the world sharing intelligence with the military, a new MI5 operations centre will be set up and technology upgraded.