Southport MP accused of misleading constituents over police funding

“We have commented in the past about statements on police funding and emphasised the need for greater precision in the way numbers are used… the Prime Minister’s statement and the Home Office’s tweet could have led the public to conclude incorrectly that central government is providing an additional £450m for police spending in 2018/19…The Home Office tweet also implied that the £450m sum is guaranteed.”

Southport Labour end up with “Egg on Face” over knife funding claim

In fact, in real terms, it amounted to yet another a cut in central government funding as up to £270m of the funding settlement will come from council tax payers but only if local police commissioners and mayors can increase council tax rates sufficiently to raise the full amount. The leader of the House of Commons, Tory MP Andrea Leadsom, also came in for criticism after claiming that the £270m was in addition to the fictional £450m in government spending. 

In local press reports, Southport’s Conservative MP, Damien Moore welcomed the “£450 million increase” saying rather confusingly “this includes up to an additional £270 million in police force budgets” but he failed to mention that money had yet to be raised or that if it was, it would be coming from council tax payers. 

Now, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate, Liz Savage, has criticised the MP and his party for their lax accounting:

“This isn’t the first time they have played fast and loose with the numbers. It’s rather like hiding the bank statement from your partner after maxing their credit card. The Tories aided by the Lib-Dems cut £2.3 billion from police funding, with hundreds of millions more in real terms since by the Tories alone and now local council tax payers are being forced to foot the bill. They are doing exactly the same with local government funding, so when residents see their council tax bills go up, remember why and who to thank for it.”