Mary attacks "reckless" Tory cuts to West Yorkshire Police funding

Wakefield MP Mary Creagh has responded to West Yorkshire Police's announcement that they expect a 20% cut in their funding from the government over the next four years.

House of Commons library analysis of the government cuts to policing shows that all police forces in England and Wales will face real terms cuts of 7% next year and 8.5% in 2012.  West Yorkshire Police receives 80% of its funding from central government so will be one of the hardest hit in the country.

At the same time as cutting funding for frontline police, the government wants to spend over £100m - the equivalent of 600 full time police officers - on bringing in directly elected police commissioners. This controversial top-down experiment goes against a 150 year tradition of keeping politics out of day to day policing and will mean politicians are able to tell a Chief Constable how to do their job. 

Mary Creagh said "It is clear that these reckless cuts go beyond what the government has announced before. This means that police officers and vital support staff will lose their jobs which will affect every part of policing in West Yorkshire. Thanks to record investment by the Labour government Wakefield has the lowest crime rate in West Yorkshire. The Tories and Lib Dems are putting the significant progress we made at risk."