SHADOW Home Secretary Andy Burnham has dropped Labour\u2019s pledge to scrap Police and Crime Commissioners and also rejected outright opposition to further cuts in police spending.<\/p>\n
Mr Burnham said that it is possible to \u201cprotect most what we\u2019ve got\u201d with cuts of 5% to 10% in police budgets, but beyond that he will warn that public safety will be put at risk.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a policing fringe event during the Labour Party Conference in Brighton, he said that it is perfectly possible to make further savings in police spending up to 10%.<\/p>\n
The government, which has already cut police budgets by 20% in the past five years, is currently examining options for further savings of between 25% and 40% to be announced in November.<\/p>\n
During his speech to the conference, Mr Burnham (pictured) announced that Labour\u2019s pledge to scrap elected police and crime commissioners would now be dropped.<\/p>\n
Mr Burnham told conference delegates: \u201cThere\u2019s a battle that we need to fight \u2013 for the safety of our communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, George Osborne is sharpening his knife. He is preparing an ideological spending review that will cut public services hard, but particularly the police: 12,000 frontline police officers have already gone and crime is starting to rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cOsborne wants to cut the police by at least 25% and even more in Labour areas. It will change the very nature of our police service.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeighbourhood policing and police community support officers will be a thing of the past. Crimes uninvestigated, calls unanswered, victims abandoned. In places, the thin blue line will be rubbed out completely.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cTheresa May talks of asking volunteers to fill the gaps. I\u2019m sorry, Home Secretary, but you\u2019re not on. Your part-time police force will put people at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe battle for our public services is now. And you know where my loyalties lie. I have shown I can fight for our NHS. And my message to our police is this \u2013 I\u2019m ready to do the same for you. Not just because I value you and your service. But because I don\u2019t want to live in a society where we leave people to fend for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Full speech here http:\/\/press.labour.org.uk\/post\/130199874314\/speech-by-andy-burnham-to-labour-party-annual<\/p>\n
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SHADOW Home Secretary Andy Burnham has dropped Labour\u2019s pledge to scrap Police and Crime Commissioners and also rejected outright opposition to further cuts in police spending. Mr Burnham said that\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2404,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402\/revisions\/2404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}