Government to provide extra police funding to protect Brits from terrorism that killed 36 in the UK this year

Five attacks in London and Manchester this year darkened our spring and early summer.

Thirty-six people died, ten of them children and teenagers.

For those directly affected, the families of victims, the countless injured physically and emotionally, the pain is still real and raw.

People are facing a first Christmas without loved ones or with their lives forever changed.

For the rest of us the attacks were a shocking reminder of the very real threat that we, along with other countries, continue to face from terrorism.

The first responsibility of government is to keep our country and its citizens safe.

It is also to protect our way of life and our values.

Next week, we will set out a comprehensive settlement for frontline police forces and counter terrorism policing that will ensure our services are fully fit for purpose and delivering for the country.

We are committed to ensuring that our counter terrorism police have the resources they need to deal with what is a step change in the nature of the threat and not a spike.

Today we can announce that we are increasing the counter terrorism policing budget by £50million of entirely new money.

This will bolster this year’s budget of £707million to at least £757million next year.

This follows the £24million of new funding provided to CT policing this year, going to forces across the country.

This represents our commitment to backing the talented and brave counter terrorism forces with the resources they need to keep people safe.

Since 2015 alone we have increased counter terrorism spending by 30 per cent and pledged more than £500million in increased funding for the counter terrorism budget, to protect the UK from the ongoing threat posed by terrorism.

We are able to announce this extra funding today because of the balanced approach this Government takes to public spending.

This will allow counter terrorism policing to meet head on the threat we face, working closely with our communities and continuing to disrupt those who would want to harm us.

We are also reviewing our counter terrorism strategy to make sure we meet the unprecedented challenge.

We are both thankful for the work our counter terrorism police do.

Together with the security services, they have disrupted 22 Islamist terrorist plots since the murder of Lee Rigby in May 2013, including nine since the Westminster attack in March this year.

Currently MI5 and counter terrorism police are running well over 500 live operations.

There were 400 arrests for terrorism-related offences in the year ending September 30, 2017, an increase of 54 per cent compared with the previous year.

Time and again our police officers have been at the forefront of our response, putting themselves in harm’s way to keep others from danger.

We will never forget the sacrifice of PC Keith Palmer who was fatally stabbed while defending our Parliament.

This Government stands alongside them, ensuring they have the resources, capabilities and powers they need.

We are grateful to them for all they have done and continue to do to keep us safe.