News
Jessica Slams Uncosted Tory Flagship Policy 30 June 2010
Jessica Slams Uncosted Tory Flagship Policy Plans for directly elected police commissioners came under fire from Jessica Morden, MP for Newport East, yesterday after a Home Office Minister avoided answering a question of the cost of introducing such a scheme. Jessica raised the question due to her concern over cuts the coalition government has placed on Police forces nationally. Senior police officers have already come out saying that they expect to lose frontline police staff due to the cuts inflicted upon them, something Labour had promised they wouldn’t do as they would protect frontline police officers from cuts. With Gwent Police already being told to save £1.3million, Jessica queried how much the policy of having elected police commissioners would cost the Government. The Minister replied with a single sentence stating that “We will be making further announcements in due course about our policy” Jessica said “I am dismayed the Minister chose to avoid my question, you have to ask whether they know how much it costs, or whether they simply do not know. I am calling for them to abandon this policy as it is clearly absurd to pursue this uncosted policy when the number of frontline police officers could be cut due to Tory-Lib cuts.”
Note for editor
source - Parliamentary Questions 28 June 2010
Jessica Morden (Newport East, Labour)
At a time when the Government are looking to police forces to save money, will the Minister tell the House how much will it cost to elect and fund the proposed directly elected police commissioners?
We will be making further announcements in due course about our policy of replacing bureaucratic accountability with direct accountability through directly elected individuals.