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Policing in London

This is a very opportune time to have this debate, with the Metropolitan police at its highest ever strength, with crime falling fast—by 19 per cent. over the last five years—and with Londoners soon to face a choice between a Mayor who has built up the Met and a Conservative party that has consistently voted for cuts in its budget; between a candidate who has cut crime and has good community relations, and a candidate with no new ideas who has alienated the minorities in our city. We now have 10,000 more police and PCSOs than there were in 2000, with dedicated safer neighbourhood teams in every ward. This includes 850 extra officers keeping the bus network safe and 700 British transport police—up by 300 since 2000—keeping the underground and the Docklands light railway safe. Police numbers are now at their highest level ever, at over 35,000, including 31,304 police officers and 4,178 PCSOs. This is the result of the investment by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and the Government, after a decade in which numbers were in continual decline under the previous Government. The Mayor's budget for next year—assuming he is re-elected, which I am sure he will be—will provide for an extra 1,000 police officers over the next 12 months in the new financial year. Yet we have seen London Conservatives consistently opposing more funding for the police. The Tories on the London Assembly voted against Mr. Livingstone's budgets that pay for extra police and safer neighbourhood teams in every ward. Tory GLA Member Richard Barnes has openly said of the police in London that"““I don't think so much money should be spent on them.””" At the mayoral hustings in September 2007, the hon. Member for Henley (Mr. Johnson) announced major cuts to London's police budget, saying:"““We have got to be absolutely clear where the scope for real economies is and the real big ticket for spending is the Metropolitan police and Transport for London. That's where the real savings, believe me, are to be found.””" That was reported in the Evening Standard on 10 September 2007. I now understand that he is targeting other aspects of the Metropolitan police budget—