Sharp rise in police asking for firearms

♦ Police officers increasingly want to be armed with guns on the streets, a poll has shown.

The number of officers asking for firearms rose by 50 per cent in 10 years. More than a third of police in England and Wales believe officers should be routinely armed compared with 23 per cent when the survey was last conducted in 2006.

Steve White, chairman of the National Police Federation, said it was “inevitable” that officers would be fully armed, with the only alternative being to deploy the Army on to British streets.