Amber Rudd managed to look as incompetent as Boris Johnson, when she decided to claim that the rise in violent crime in London was not the result of the fall in police numbers. Whilst she may be theoretically correct by not pinning all of the blame on police cuts but she fails to recognise the profound affect the police cuts have had and would have no doubt have contributed to the rise crime.
The latter has now been confirmed after a leaked Home Office report categorically states that the fall in police numbers has had a detrimental affect on crime rates.
However, Mrs Rudd firmly placed her head back into the sand by claiming she hadn’t ‘seen the report’.
Is the Home Office Rudderless?
The individual who runs the Home Office claims she hasn’t seen, what looks to be a pretty important report, that states that government cuts to the police have had a negative effect on crime rates in London. By claiming she had no knowledge of the report indicates a number of possibilities, firstly, that she is just incompetent, secondly, she has wilfully decided to try and mislead the public to make it look like policies first enacted by the now Prime Minister and herself, look far better than they actually are, or there is the distinct possibility that she doesn’t have much say in the actual running of the department.
Labour’s Angela Rayner raised an important point about the government cuts and the direct links to the rise in crime, because a lot of those involved in the Violent Crimes are younger gang members. However, Mrs Rayner said on the Andrew Marr program "We've seen cuts to youth services, education, children's services and all these wrap around services that we know support our young people," a point which is important. Whilst police cuts have shown to have had a significant impact on the rise, it cannot be taken away that the cuts to youth services and other programs that helps young people get off the streets.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Home Office has been criticised, it was reported at the end of March that the department was warned that it had “a considerable amount of work to do” to make “necessary improvements”, because in the most critical report, on how the immigration service fails to protect the interests of unaccompanied child asylum seekers.
Furthermore, another inspection questions the government’s immigration inspectors, Border Force and whether they were effective in being able to spot potential victims of modern slavery or any other kind of forced labour.
Council tax increases
These kids will be demonised by the ruling elite and they will be branded ‘violent delinquents’ by many people but lest not forget that this is the direct result of government cuts that leave families and children more vulnerable than they have been for a long time. London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has responded by increasing the policing precept fund on council tax by £12 a year, overall the increase in council tax will be the maximum before a public referendum of 5.1% but many are obviously unhappy with this and claim he should be doing more.
Unfortunately, the system works so that the government controls 70% of Met funding.
In recent years, the met has been forced to save £600 million and still has to make more savings of hundreds of millions by 2021/22. Around 30% of police staff posts have been lost along with 65% of community support officers. There have also been losses of around 120 police buildings and most of the capital’s police station front counters have been removed. Sadiq Khan managed to raise approximately £25. Million last year for the Met through the increase of police element of council tax but the continued government failures are making it difficult for Mr Khan to act accordingly.