THIEVES AND THUGS RUN RIOT

Police cuts have fuelled crime, claims Met chief

MINISTERS are naive to think police cuts have not fuelled violent crime in the capital, Britain’s top officer said yesterday.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said the Government’s austerity drive was among the reasons for spiralling bloodshed in London.

At least 69 people have already been killed on the streets of the capital in 2018. Giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee, Miss Dick said reduced numbers of officers had definitely had an impact.

She said: ‘A whole series of social issues will have contributed to the changes and the increases in violent crime.

‘I answered a radio interview in which I said, in effect, of course austerity has probably had something to do with it, by which I mean, of course, the other services as well as the police.

‘But I would be naive to suggest that reduced numbers of officers on the street, for a whole variety of reasons, including – and I’m talking across the country here – reduced officer numbers overall, have had no impact.’

However the Commissioner accepted that, after lobbying the Home Office, Scotland Yard had received more money, which

‘Austerity has an impact’

would be ring-fenced to fight gun and knife crime.

Ministers say the overall grant for the country’s 43 police forces has been protected in cash terms in 2018-19 at £12.6billion.

But the Home Office says the police will receive an extra £450million in funding, including £270million if they raise council tax precepts.

In April, the then home secretary Amber Rudd denied a link between police cuts and spiralling violent crime.

She insisted it was a mistake to connect tumbling officer numbers to the spate of deadly shootings, stabbings and acid attacks in recent weeks.

But her successor, Sajid Javid, offered an olive branch to rankand-file officers following years of sniping over cuts. He sought to end the rows by acknowledging the pressures on officers at a conference in Birmingham.

Police officer numbers have fallen by 21,000 since 2010.

London mayor Sadiq Khan this week repeated his long-standing claim that the Met Police was losing £1billion from its budget.

He told the Guardian: ‘I’m concerned about the unsustainability of policing in London; we’ve lost £730million from the Met police budget and over the next three years we’ll lose £335million. So that’s a billion pounds.’