Andrew Dismore

Dear editor,

I am amazed at Cllr Oliver Cooper’s inability to grasp arithmetic and the detail of police funding, in his  letter replying to mine. He refers to the figure of an extra £172 million- as did I. it is from then on we differ. He refers to the ‘government’s funding announcement’ , inferring that this money comes from government. In fact, almost half of it -£80 million- comes from a proposed increase in council tax, which is nothing to do with government, but comes from the pockets of hard pressed Londoners.

He suggests that this government largesse would pay for ‘1,600 extra police officers’, even after paying for the police pay rise and pension changes. Utter bunkum.

£45.7 million is eaten up by the police pension changes; £11.7 million is reimbursement of money already spent on national and international functions; and £28.8 million is taken up with the police’s  well deserved pay rise. This leaves just £5.8 million coming from central government to pay for everything else. That would be sufficient to pay for just under 100 officers, but for one thing: inflation, which takes up rather more than that £5.8 million..

Cllr Cooper might have a little more credibility if he were to join Mayor Sadiq Khan, the Metropolitan  Police Commissioner, the Home Affairs Select Committee, the Public  Accounts Committee and so  many others in calling on the Conservative government  to reverse  their £1 billion cuts in the Met.’s budget, cuts  that have led to  the  many policing problems that are there for all to see.

Andrew Dismore

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden