Livingstone attacks Johnson ‘hypocrisy’ over police cuts

In a statement this morning, Ken Livingstone responded to Boris Johnson’s claims that he wanted to see police cuts reversed:

“Boris Johnson may want to look like a critic of the government for police cuts but this is fake and hypocrisy as he has been ramming through overall police cuts in London and undermining neighbourhood policing himself.”

“According to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary there will be 1,907 fewer officers over the next three to four years, a figure the Met confirms.”

“Johnson’s budget of 2010/11, published in 2009, first proposed a cut of 455 police – before Cameron was elected. This was so damaging that he since sought to argue that there are no police cuts in London.”

“Just a few weeks ago Boris Johnson’s Campaign Director Lynton Crosby sent an email saying that on police, ‘we are heading in the right direction.’ His deputy mayor for policing Kit Malthouse last month called the HMIC estimate of police officer cuts ‘cobblers’. Johnson and his team have both carried out cuts and denied they are happening.”

“In addition to cutting the police overall, simultaneously the minimum deployment of local police teams is being watered down and hundreds of local neighbourhood police sergeants are being forced to reapply for their own posts.”

“Under Boris Johnson’s own plan the police sergeant in his own ward is having to reapply for his own job.”

“Boris Johnson is criticising the government for policies he is himself carrying out to attempt to divert attention from his own failure in policy and response for dealing with the riots in London.”

“There is one straightforward question to be asked of Boris Johnson – when will you end your own policy of police cuts, when will you halt the watering down of local police teams, and when will you halt you policy of making local sergeants reapply for their own jobs?”

“We need policies that put London first, not chaos and hypocrisy.”