PM must correct herself after she got sums wrong

We have repeatedly said around £270m of the up to £450m increase in police fundingr results from increased council tax

PRIME Minister Theresa May has been urged to correct herself after the official statistics watchdog said she was wrong to claim Government funding for the police has risen.

Mrs May told the House of Commons that “more money is going to policing” and said: “We are providing extra funding for police forces.”

Similar claims were also made by the Home Office, which stated on its official Twitter account: “The Government is providing a £450m boost to #police funding”.

But Sir David Norgrove, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, has ruled that the claims give the wrong impression.

The Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria Police, Dame Vera Baird, has now called on the Prime Minister to set the record straight.

She said: “We have repeatedly had to listen to Theresa May state that the Government have provided an extra £450m for police spending over the next financial year.

“Like the Labour front bench, I have challenged time and time against this claim - because spouting such rubbish is misleading and wrong.”

The row focuses on Government funding for police services, which has actually been frozen - a real terms cut, once inflation is taken into account.

Government funding for Northumbria Police is £222.6m for the financial year beginning in April, the same amount as last year.

But the Government has also made it easier for Police and Crime Commissioners to impose above-inflation increases in the police precept, which is added to council tax bills.

Dame Vera has imposed a £12-a-year increase on band D homes. It means total funding for Northumbria Police will rise by £5.1m. Labour politicians argue that this means the Government is wrong to suggest that it is providing extra money, because the increase will actually come from council tax-payers and not from central Government funding.

Sir David endorsed that view, after he was asked to make a ruling by the Labour Party.

He said: “The Prime Minister’s statement and the Home Office’s tweet could have led the public to conclude incorrectly that central Government is providing an additional £450m for police spending in 2018/19. The Home Office tweet also implied that the £450m sum is guaranteed. “As the Minister for Policing’s statement outlined, up to £270m of the funding settlement will come from local council tax, if police and crime commissioners and mayors choose to raise these sums.”

Dame Vera said: “Let’s be absolutely clear, the Government is moving the responsibility of police funding from central Government to council tax payers, which is wrong.

“The funding package put together by Amber Rudd for Northumbria Police assumed that I would increase the police precept by £12.00 for a Band D property - if I didn’t, this would have resulted in a budget reduction of £5.1m, on top of the £135m cut since 2010.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “The police funding settlement for 2018/19 that we set out delivers an increase in overall police funding.

“We aim to be as clear as possible in communicating it to the public and have repeatedly said that around £270m of the up to £450m increase in police funding next year results from increased council tax precept income, which is dependant on PCCs’ decisions.”