Home Secretary’s “sympathy” over police pay changes

THE Home Secretary has said it is “impossible not to feel sympathy” with police officers following “painful” changes to their pay and conditions – but has again refused to back down over reform.

Theresa May repeated her view that changes to police pay have been “vital” in maintaining frontline services while budgets are slashed.

During an event held by think-tank Reform, Mrs May revealed her strategy in dealing with people and organisations with “vested interests” such as the Police Federation.

“Reform means taking difficult decisions, and difficult decisions often mean upsetting people – especially when the change involves pay and conditions. But that doesn’t mean you can shirk them,” she said.

“You have to decide what is in the national interest and do it. Keep making your case, always remind people of what you’re trying to achieve, what’s the end objective, but whatever you do, don’t buckle.”

Mrs May again insisted that crime is down despite cuts to policing. While she thanked the efforts of officers up and down the country and the leadership of chief constables, she also claimed that the fall in crime is down to police reform.

“In the case of the police, of course changes to pay and conditions and pensions have been painful for some officers, and it’s impossible not to feel sympathy with them”, she said.

“But those changes have been vital in maintaining the frontline service as we reduce spending – and just as importantly they’ve given chief constables real freedom to lead their forces better.”

Mrs May described reform as “gritty and unglamorous work”, highlighting efforts made to cut down on consultancy contracts, marketing spending and procurement costs.

Risking further scorn from rank and file officers, she insisted that the Police Federation, Labour Party and ACPO had been wrong to predict that “frontline policing would be decimated and crime would go up” when government decided to cut police budgets by 20 per cent.  “In fact, the opposite happened – crime is down by more than ten per cent since the election,” she said.

The Home Secretary joked about her recent appearances at the Police Federation Conference, saying: “The first time I spoke at the Police Federation conference was straight after the 2010 election, and we hadn’t yet had to take any difficult decisions. There was laughter, applause, I even got a standing ovation.

“The second time I spoke I was received in total silence. The third time I was roundly booed and jeered. This year, I don’t think I can say they were enthusiastic – but I got out alive.”