Corbyn: May cut police & put us all in danger, she should quit
ATTACK ON BRITAIN: PM UNDER FIRE OVER SECURITY FAILINGS
JEREMY Corbyn said Theresa May should resign over her savage police cuts that have left Britain at greater risk from terrorism.
The Prime Minister has axed more than 20,000 frontline officers and 1,000 armed police since she became Home Secretary in 2010.
Mrs May also gave the boot to nearly half of the police community support officers.
Police representatives warned yesterday the PM’s cuts mean the UK is less able to prevent the sort of terror attacks that have rocked the nation three times in the past three months.
Asked if he would back calls for Mrs May to resign, Labour leader Mr Corbyn said: “Indeed I would.
“There’s been calls made by a lot of very responsible people on this who are very worried that she was at the Home Office for all this time, presided over these cuts in police numbers, and is now saying that we have a problem.
“We do have a problem – we should never have cut the police numbers.”
Later in the day, he rowed back from his call for her to quit with days to go before the election but added that now was the time for voters to make the decision for her.
Mr Corbyn added: “I’m not backing away from anything. What I’m saying is there’s an election on… There’s a choice before everybody.
“I’m articulating what is a deep anger amongst those people that have seen 20,000 police officers lose their jobs, seen firefighters lose their jobs, seen ambulance crews unable to cope. Mrs May needs to think about what she did while Home Secretary.”
Labour has already pledged to restore 10,000 police officers, to be paid for by reversing cuts to capital gains tax enjoyed by the rich.
The Tory manifesto makes no promises on police funding.
Mrs May claims her cuts have not left Britain unsafe, because she has protected the budgets for counterterror and security services. But Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick confirmed extra funds are needed.
She said: “Yes of course I think it’s appropriate for us all to look at the amount of resource that police have – both the counter-terror police but also our neighbourhood officers.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who yesterday joined Ms Dick on a visit to the scene of the London Bridge and
Borough Market terror attack, said the capital faces £400million of police cuts over the next four years.
He added: “We receive half the funds we should be receiving.”
Former counter-terrorism police chief Jim Gamble also blasted the PM for the “endless cuts”, saying: “That’s fewer eyes and ears on the street, fewer bobbies building relationships… and that visible reassurance and deterrence that’s key at times like this. For too long the blanket of austerity has excused all sorts of cuts.”
The Met has installed barriers on three bridges in London in a bid to stop vehicles mounting the pavement.
The changes to Westminster, Lambeth and Waterloo bridges are in response to the attacks when pedestrians were mowed down on London Bridge on Saturday and Westminster Bridge in March. At a disastrous campaign event yesterday, Mrs May dodged six chances to admit she was wrong to slash the number of officers.
One reply to journalists was that police budgets had been protected since 2015 – ignoring all the cuts from her first five years as Home Secretary.
Grilled by the Mirror and others in Central London, she repeated the line or ignored the questions completely. In an interview with Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan, Culture Secretary Karen Bradley refused to say whether the number of armed officers had gone down.
Mr Morgan told the Tory: “There will be many who argue that Theresa May’s cuts mean she now has the blood of our civilians on her hands.”
Six unions representing emergency services staff said the PM’s cuts have made Britain less safe.
Unison’s Ben Priestley told a joint press conference: “Neighbourhood policing has vanished… Theresa May is claiming she protected the counterterrorism budget. Well, a lot of the really good intelligence comes from that day-to-day, painstaking work out on the beat. And that has been lost.”
Calum Macleod, of the Police Federation, said: “We’re in danger of sleepwalking towards another tragedy if we don’t recognise right now that community policing is on the critical list.”
Policing is on the critical list. We’re at risk of sleepwalking towards another tragedy POLICE FEDERATION ISSUES STARK WARNING YESTERDAY