‘Unprecedented’ threat needs more resources, says Met chief

BRITAIN’S most senior police chief has called for more officers and resources to help deal with an “unprecedented” terror threat.

Cressida Dick, the new head of the Metropolitan Police, said the threat facing Britain was “unprecedented in my working life”. She said: “We need to look at our resourcing.”

She made the comments as the Prime Minister was challenged over her record as Home Secretary when the number of police officers on the streets fell by 20,000. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, called for Mrs May to resign as Prime Minister over the issue.

However, she insisted the police and intelligence agencies were “well resourced”. Mrs May said: “It is not just about resources, it is about the powers people have.” At an election campaign event in London, she said: “Cressida Dick has said that the Metropolitan Police are well resourced – and they are, she has said they have very powerful counterterrorism capabilities – and they do. We have protected counter-terrorism policing budgets, we have funded an uplift in the number of armed police officers.”

She said that since 2015 police budgets had been protected “despite the fact that Jeremy Corbyn’s front bench suggested that police budgets should be cut by up to 10 per cent”. She added: “It is also about the powers you give to the police and I have been responsible for giving the police extra powers to deal with terrorism.

“Jeremy Corbyn has boasted that he has opposed those powers and opposed the powers for anti-terror actions throughout his time in parliament.”

Ms Dick told ITV’S Good Morning Britain: “The number of police officers has stayed reasonably static, it’s gone down a little. In the light of the attacks over the last nine weeks… and the changing threat that we clearly face, we must look to see whether we need more.”