Former Met Commissioner Ian Blair echoed the sentiments of Jeremy Corbyn this week by highlighting the impact cuts to police funding have had on the recent violent crime spree.
A Freedom of Information request obtained by The London Economic following a spate of attacks in the capital showed some London boroughs now have higher homicide rates than many major UK cities.
Appearing on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, Sajid Javid appeared stumped as he attempted to defend the rise in crime in relation to police budget cuts.
Marr used the words of Ian Blair, who spoke on the radio this week, saying: “If you take 20 per cent of the Met’s funding away something gives, and the thing that’s given is neighbourhood policing”.
The sentiment echoed that of Jeremy Corbyn who put funding cuts to Theresa May in parliament at the start of the year.
In a fierce grilling the Labour leader told May: “You can’t have public safety on the cheap”, asking her if she regrets cutting 21,000 police officeers with crime on the up.
Theresa May had said as Home Secretary when she oversaw unparalleled cuts to policing: 20,000 frontline police officers, 1,300 firearms- trained officers and 26,000 community support officers that “the police need to stop crying wolf and scaremongering about terrorism”.
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