LABOUR may not reverse coalition cuts to the police if elected, according to a senior shadow minister.
Vernon Coaker, whose portfolio includes the police, refused to commit a future Labour Government to bring back the 16,000 officers who face losing their job under current spending cuts.
Northumbria Chief Constable Sue Sim was last year hit with a £57m cut in Government grant that will see at least 1,100 posts go, including 92 officers in the current year.
But Mr Coaker insisted that a reduction in frontline numbers would not be necessary if the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition supported Labour’s current proposal of a 12% cut, a £1bn reduction to current Whitehall funding for police.
He accused the Government of a 20% damaging cut to the police budget, while Labour backed a report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) that found 12% cuts were possible without leading to a reduction of officers. It is a theme expected to be repeated by Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in her speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool today.
The shadow police minister also questioned the coalition’s wisdom of spending tens of millions of pounds on elections for new police and crime commissioners given cuts to police budgets – although he signalled Labour would field candidates to try to make the system work.
Voters will go to the polls in November 2012 to choose the new elected police chiefs with existing police authorities axed.
Asked directly if Labour would bring back police authorities and restore officer numbers, Mr Coaker said: “We have to wait and see where we are in 2015 in the same way as the Conservative Government hasn’t unpicked every single thing the Labour Government did.
“When we come to power you are not going to spend the first year or two just undoing everything.
“You need to reflect, see how it works, what’s happened, what’s been good, what’s been bad. And if necessary amend and adapt. But you wouldn’t necessarily commit yourself to say we are going to tear it all down.”
While it was possible to find savings without cutting officer numbers, Mr Coaker added it was up to chief constables as to how money was spent by forces.
He also praised Northumbria Chief Constable Sue Sim’s decision to turn down a bonus of up to £47,240 because she did not think it “appropriate” at a time of cuts and job losses.
She was in line for a 15% bonus over two years of her salary after the force hit a number of targets. Her deputy and assistant chief constables also declined to take slightly smaller pay-outs.
“Obviously it is a matter for chief constables themselves in terms of bonuses and individual circumstances, but I think what she has done is good. She’s trying to, it seems to me, I guess, set an example,” said Mr Coaker.