Ahead of the Chancellor's Budget Announcement, Labour's London Assembly Spokesperson for Policing and Crime, Unmesh Desai AM, said:
"This week, the latest Home Affairs Committee report provided yet more evidence of the Government’s complete indifference to the plight of our police services.
In the midst of a rise in violent and serious crime, we actually have cross-party consensus that the actions of the Government are putting policing at risk of becoming an ‘irrelevant’ area of concern.
For Londoners, plummeting prosecution rates and the struggle to maintain officer numbers are certainly not irrelevant matters by any stretch of the imagination.
It has been clear for a long time that the common denominator underpinning this burgeoning crisis is the systematic underfunding of our police. However, repeated calls from the Mayor, London politicians and community groups for an end to the funding cuts, continue to fall on deaf ears.
It is simple, cuts have consequences. Yet in spite of all the evidence supporting this, the Met Police are still facing the incredibly difficult task of having to deliver £325m in savings by 2021.
The Chancellor has an opportunity to turn the situation around and use his upcoming Budget to alleviate the financial pressures on our beleaguered police forces. I urge him to listen to the voices of Londoners and use it".
ENDS