Budget cuts forced on police by Labour are deeply troubling, says Met chief

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has warned that Labour's Budget will mean "eye-watering cuts" to the services his officers can offer the public.

Sir Mark Rowley said he was "deeply troubled by the situation we appear to be heading towards" in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking podcast.

Britain's most senior police officer said the accumulated impact of previous spending cuts, coupled with the most recent spending targets for the public sector , would require "difficult choices" for his force.

"The Chancellor has been very clear – it's a difficult public sector context," Sir Mark said.

'Dramatic change in budgets' "You add all those things together. And you get a dramatic change in budgets and of a scale that's never going to be absorbed by efficiencies. And it's going to require some pretty eye-watering cuts to the services we provide to London."

Sir Mark told Nick Robinson that there was little, if any, scope left for efficiency savings and front-line services could well suffer as a result.

"This is not just about this year's decisions, but it's a cumulative effect of decisions over the last decade or so which have put us in a more and more precarious position," he said.

"Some of the things that successive commissioners and mayors have used to balance the books – like selling police stations and using reserves – all of those things have run out. So those are propped up in the budget. Those props have gone."

'Without fear or favour' The Commissioner also defended his force against charges of "woke" two-tier policing by treating Left-wing protests and causes leniently.

Sir Mark said: "On the same day, on the same protest or the same event, officers are called 'fascist' and 'woke'. I mean, that's slightly ridiculous.

"On the same day, officers will have allegations that all officers are sort of racist and bigoted, and then someone else saying it's two-tier policing and officers are somehow... cosying up to minorities and not being neutral. I mean, this is the consequence of being a service that operates in the middle without fear or favour under the law."

He added: "We're always going to be ones in the crossfire. And we have to robustly and determinedly hold that line of independence under the law."

In the interview, Sir Mark contrasts the experience of today's front-line officers with his own as a young policeman in Birmingham three decades ago, suggesting that they operate under far more scrutiny than previously.

"It does risk narrowing the recruitment pool , and beyond that, it makes officers at work more cautious about their decisions," he said.

'Brutal operating environment' "They sometimes stand off things. They don't want to get trained to do pursuits. They don't get trained to use tasers there.

"They're nervous about the spectre of scrutiny. They hand in their public order tickets because they don't want the cameras in their faces. We've had officers policing marches and demonstrations who've been set up by stickers being put on them in incidents and then got death threats online. It's just a brutal operating environment."

Sir Mark's comments come after the prosecution of an armed Metropolitan Police officer who was accused of murdering Chris Kaba .

Sgt Martyn Blake was cleared by an Old Bailey jury last month after shooting the 24-year-old gangster during a police vehicle stop in Streatham in Sept 2022.