Home Secretary says more cash for cops is ‘priority’ after the Budget gives no extra funding

SAJID Javid declared war on the Chancellor yesterday by saying more cash for cops would be his “priority” in next year’s Spending Review.

Speaking just two days after the Budget, the Home Secretary told police chiefs he would personally insist on more money for policing after a near 20 per cent surge in violent crime over the past year.

It came as the Prime Minister was directly challenged by Jeremy Corbyn over the failure to find any money for neighbourhood policing in the Budget.

Mr Javid told a police chiefs conference: “I recognise that demand has risen and that you’re grappling with your budgets - and I want to do something about it. While resources are of course not the whole answer, they are of course a vital part of it.

“When it comes to the Spending Review next year, my priority will be policing.”

It came as police chiefs warned they may take legal action against the Chancellor after he declared an extra £160 million for counter-terror policing in the Budget – but nothing for bobbies on the beat.

Mr Corbyn yesterday panned the PM and asked why the Government had failed to find “a single penny for neighbourhood policing in the Budget”.

Theresa May countered that the Government had already pumped in an “extra” £460 million this year.  But police chiefs yesterday warned they may sue the Government unless it backed down over plans to deduct hundreds of millions of pounds from their Budgets to pay more staff pensions.

The National Police Chiefs Council sent a formal letter to the Treasury saying it would seek a judicial review of Government proposals given their already over-stretched budgets.

The Sun on Tuesday revealed the Treasury was setting aside an extra £4.7 billion to help government departments, police forces and schools meet higher pension costs.

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