Met Police in line to foot £multi-million bill for Trump visit

The Met faces a £31 million bill for policing Brexit protests, President Trump’s state visit to London last year as well as a series of other high-profile events.

The Government usually covers this cost through Special Grant Funding but this year, the Met may have to foot the bill for these events.

Today, the London Assembly called on the Government to cover the full costs the Met has faced in policing the extraordinary events that have taken place in London in the last year.

Unmesh Desai AM, who proposed the motion said:

“The scale of the Met Police’s specialist duties and international operations is often overlooked. The unavoidable reality is that policing events such as Donald Trump’s visit and the protests over Brexit come at a considerable cost to their already overstretched budget.

“If the Government pushes through with its proposals to change the rules surrounding the amount of Special Grant Funding that the Met is entitled to, it could force them even further into the red.

“On top of this, the Government continues to underfund the Met through the National International Capital Cities grant to the tune of £189 million.

“We simply cannot afford more cuts at a time when our police are fighting rising violent crime with already meagre resources. It is only right that the Met’s specialist policing costs are covered in full by Central Government.”

The full text of the motion is:

“This Assembly welcomes the Government’s increase in core grant funding to the Metropolitan Police Service in the next financial year, which will enable an increase in officer numbers over the next financial year that would otherwise not have been possible.

“This Assembly notes that the Metropolitan Police Service also has outstanding Special Grant claims totalling £31million for the financial year 2020/21. This includes funding to cover unique events that have taken place this year, such as the visit by the President of the United States, the NATO summit and the Brexit protests.

“This Assembly also notes that, while in most areas Special Grant Funding is not paid for individual events that do not exceed 1% of the policing budget, in London this requirement has normally been waived since London’s budget is so large. The Met was provided with £17million in Special Grant Funding in 2018/19 that was not subject to this 1% threshold. However, the Mayor has been advised that the Government is proposing to strictly impose the threshold for the Met for 2019/2020, which would result in the Met having to pay for the full outstanding £31million in special grant claims from its existing budget. Due to past precedent, the Met factor in the receipt of Special Grant funding during their budget setting process.

“This Assembly further notes that the Metropolitan Police service is underfunded through the National and International Capital Cities Grant by around £189million, which has been accepted by the Home Office’s independent panel, and therefore cannot afford to pay for these one-off events through the NICC Grant.

“This Assembly therefore calls upon the Government to cover the full costs the Met has faced in policing the extraordinary events that have taken place in London in the last year. To do otherwise would be to impose a new £31million reduction in the Met’s budget.”