The true extent of ‘criminal’ Conservative police cuts in Greater Manchester have been revealed by local Liberal Democrats.
 
Councillor Howard Sykes MBE comments on a Liberal Democrat analysis of new Home Office figures released recently.  They revealed that the Conservative Government cut funding to Greater Manchester by 6.3% in real terms between 2015-16 and 2019-20.
 
According to data from the Home Office statistical bulletin: ‘Police funding for England and Wales 2015 to 2020,’ total government funding to all 43 forces in the UK (in 2019-20 prices) fell from £8.48 billion in 2015-16 to £7.99 billion in 2019-20.  32 of the 43 forces across the country experienced cuts of 6% or more. 
 
Liberal Democrat Councillor Howard Sykes MBE said:
 
“Across the country, we are seeing rising crime and falling police numbers.  Far too many people now feel unsafe walking down their own streets.  This is unacceptable.
 
Taking 5,000 police off our streets in the last four years and cutting funding in real-terms by £490 million from 2015-16 to 2019-20 are big Conservative crimes.”
 
Councillor Sykes, Liberal Democrat Leader of the Opposition went on to say:

“Inflicting 6.3% cuts on our local police force over the last four years, given concerns about knife crime, shows just how out of touch the Conservatives are.  This is not what people want.”

“The Liberal Democrats demand better.  We will give police forces the resources they need to recruit more officers and restore real community policing in our Borough, so that we can make our streets safer and make people feel safer too.”

Notes:
 
The data is from the Home Office statistical bulletin Police funding for England and Wales 2015 to 2020, available here.
 
The 2015-16 figures have been converted to 2019-20 prices using HM Treasury’s latest GDP deflators, available here.
 
The calculations of real-terms cuts for each police force can be found here.