Scott Houghton
Officials from Cambridgeshire Police Federation are hoping to meet with all county MPs elected at last week’s General Election to give them an insight into the issues affecting police officers.
With Labour sweeping to a landslide victory nationally, they – and the Liberal Democrats – gained seats in Cambridgeshire too so there are mainly new MPs for the Federation to meet.
“We are keen to meet the county MPs elected to represent us in Parliament as soon as we can,” says Scott, “We want to talk to them about the issues police officers are facing, the need for them to be paid fairly, the importance of sustained investment in policing and, with the three Labour MPs in particular, the Government’s plans for policing.
“Federation officials are in a very strong position to be able to talk about police officers’ concerns and also put forward ideas for where change is needed, and one subject we will definitely want to raise is the Police Remuneration Review Body, which we believe should be replaced since it simply not fit for purpose.
“The General Election has given us an opportunity to re-build the relationship between the Police Federation and the Government, since it had become strained during the years of austerity when policing was put under huge pressure trying to do more with less and police officers saw their pay fall by 20 per cent in real terms.
“We hope our county MPs will take us up on this open invitation to meet with us, have an open conversation and work together to help improve the police service we provide for our communities.”
In its election manifesto, Labour set out plans to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour and said its mission was to ‘take back our streets’, reducing serious violence and rebuilding public confidence in policing by getting officers back on the streets.
The party said it would introduce a new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, restoring patrols to town centres by recruiting thousands of new police officers, police and community support officers (PCSOs) and Special Constables and putting 13,000 extra neighbourhood police and PCSOs on the beat.
It pledged to introduce new penalties for offenders, get knives off the streets, set up a specialist rape unit in every police force and launch a new network of Young Futures hubs.
Funding for its manifesto pledges would come from ending private schools’ tax breaks and a Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme.