BORIS IN PLEDGE TO FUND 20,000 POLICE
BORIS Johnson will today pledge to fund an extra 20,000 police officers on UK streets – including a further 2,000 for Scotland.
Positioning himself as the champion of law and order, the tory leadership frontrunner will unveil plans for a recruitment blitz.
he will make a commitment to reverse huge cuts in police numbers in England and Wales since 2010 – increasing the annual police pay bill by more than £1billion.
the move would lead to scotland receiving a cash windfall of £80million a year in funding under the Barnett formula and, according to his campaign, this would mean an additional 2,000 officers for Police scotland.
the money would come from additional borrowing, with sources saying it could be achieved by using the so-called
‘headroom’ set aside by Chancellor Philip Hammond to cope with the impact of a No Deal Brexit.
Last night, the former London mayor said: ‘Soaring crime levels are destroying lives across the country and we urgently need to tackle this.
‘To keep our streets safe and cut crime, we need to continue to give the police the tools they need and, crucially, we need to increase the physical presence of police on our streets.
‘That’s why I will be increasing police numbers by 0,000. We want to make sure we keep the number of police officers high and we need to keep visible frontline policing.’
His pledge is double Labour’s manifesto pledge to recruit an extra 10,000 police. The intervention came as:
Mr Johnson fired a broadside at Mr Hunt over Brexit, saying it would be ‘folly’ to countenance further delay.
Theresa May prepared to warn her successor in a speech in Scotland a nodeal Brexit could break up the UK.
Mr Johnson faced a backlash over his plan to scrap the sugar tax, with Tory MPs warning they could join forces with Labour to vote it down.
Mr Hunt’s campaign accused rivals of breaching data laws after some party members, including Mr Hunt, received unsolicited emails from him.
The two leadership rivals agreed to in-depth interviews with the BBC’s Andrew Neil on live TV next week.
Mrs May savaged Jeremy Corbyn over his shift to backing a second referendum, telling him: ‘Never have so many been betrayed by so few.’
Mr Johnson’s police pledge is borrowed from Home Secretary Sajid Javid and will fuel speculation that he will be rewarded with a top job in the new Cabinet, possibly as Chancellor.
Mr Hammond warned this week that the £ 6billion ‘fiscal headroom’ would all disappear under a no-deal Brexit.
But Mr Johnson’s move to increase support for the police is likely to play well with the 160,000 Tory activists who will decide the leadership contest.
Scottish Tory MP Colin Clark said: ‘This announcement goes to show how in touch Boris is with the concerns of people across the UK.’
When the SNP came to power in 007 it pledged to expand the force by at least 1,000 officers from the 16, 34 it inherited – and maintain this. However, the promise was later dropped.
Nationalist MSP Rona Mackay said Mr Johnson as PM would be a ‘complete disaster’ for Scotland. ‘Since the SNP came to power, police officer numbers have risen by over 1,000 and crime is at a 41-year low,’ she said.
Last night, the SNP refused to say how the £80million received as a result of Mr Johnson’s pledge would be spent and whether Police Scotland would receive the additional funds.
FOR an aspirant to the top job at one of the world’s biggest banks, they are hardly glowing credentials.
No financial qualifications. A criminal conviction. And an unerring knack for failing to forecast the economic weather.
Some would consider that person barely fit to run the cash register on a whelk stall. But ex-French minister Christine Lagarde has been named European Central Bank president.
As head of the IMF, and at the height of the referendum campaign, she warned Brexit would be ‘pretty bad to very, very bad’ for the UK. How mistaken. Since then, employment has hit record levels and growth has outgunned Europe.
Meanwhile, a scandal-plagued German defence minister and an ex-Belgian prime minister ousted in a no-confidence vote last December have been handed plum EU posts. What do these undistinguished jobsworths have in common?
All fervently anti-Brexit. All put forward – not elected – during opaque backroom EU carve-ups. And all will pocket generous taxpayer-funded salaries and expenses. So much for democracy.