Mayor's Budget guidance puts police funding at risk - Tuffrey

12.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 22nd Jul 2008

Commenting after questioning Kit Malthouse, Deputy Mayor for Policing at today's meeting of the London Assembly's Budget Committee, Liberal Democrat Group Leader Mike Tuffrey said:

"The Met Police have budgeted for an increase of 2.5% in police spending next year, just to cope with inflation. At a time of rising fuel costs and wage increases, this was always going to be a tough sum to achieve.

Now the Mayor has told the Met Police that they should only budget to spend an extra 1.75% in the next financial year. This means real cuts in spending on London's police service next year.

I am always in favour of looking at ways of making efficiency savings, but the Mayor has failed to say how he can balance the books without job cuts. 80% of the policing budget for London is made up of staff costs."

"Boris Johnson should guarantee now that there will be no real cuts next year in the policing service Londoners receive."

ENDS