Government meets key 20,000 new police pledge but critics warn it only fills Tory cuts
By ITV News Westminster Producer, Lucy McDaid
The government has met a manifesto pledge to hire 20,000 new police officers in England and Wales, but Britain's biggest force failed to meet its individual target.
A total of 20,951 new officers have been recruited in the past three years, according to provisional Home Office figures released on Wednesday, meeting a 2019 commitment made by Boris Johnson.
But Home Office figures also show the number of new police officers in England and Wales is only up by 5,838 since 2010.
Meanwhile, Britain's biggest force, the Metropolitan Police, missed its individual target by about 1,000 hires, a month after a recent report found the force to be institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said "the reputation of the force at the moment" is partly to blame for the struggle to hire new officers.
'The reputation' of the Metropolitan Police isn't helping the force to recruit new officers, says Met Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley
Meanwhile, opposition parties strongly argue the 20,000 new police recruits in England and Wales is only filling a shortfall created by Conservative cuts.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The Conservatives are taking the country for fools.
“They cut 20,000 police officers from our streets. Now they expect the public to be grateful for a Police Replacement Programme that still leaves 6,000 fewer police out on the beat and 9,000 fewer officers in real terms compared to the last Labour government as the population has grown.
“With more than 90% of crimes going unsolved, victims dropping out in their millions, and recorded knife crime and sexual violence rising, the Conservatives have no grip on law and order. Only Labour will restore neighbourhood policing with 13,000 extra officers and PCSOs to rebuild safety in our communities.”
Speaking to ITV News on Wednesday, the Home Secretary Suella Braverman admitted the government had to make "difficult choices" when taking over from Labour in 2010.
But rather than filling a shortfall, Ms Braverman argued there is now "an historic" number of officers on the streets of England and Wales.
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It comes on the same day Ms Braverman said she wants to see "common sense policing", with officers able to catch criminals without fear of "political correctness".
Ms Braverman told an audience in Westminster that those in positions of authority have for too long "indulged in a narrative" that crime is an "illness to be treated" rather than a "destructive option" chosen by perpetrators.
This mindset serves to "diminish individual responsibility and culpability", Ms Braverman added, which "displaces the old-fashioned and just retributive consideration of the criminal events themselves and the effect they have".
The new Home Office figures also reveal that the government only reached its 20,000 target in recent weeks, with a significant recruitment increase recorded in March this year.
The total number of new officers provisionally stood at 18,544 at the end of February, nearly 1,500 short of the target.
The sharp jump in headcount in the weeks leading up to the March 31 deadline represented the "largest month-on-month increase" since the recruitment programme began, the Home Office said.
"The majority of the increase over the latest quarter was seen in the month of March," it added.
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