Austerity cuts in budget will 'break policing' says South Yorkshire Police Federation

South Yorkshire Police Federation chair Steve Kent said: “We cannot return to austerity, we need to grow policing. Policing is fractured and if there are any further cuts it will break wide open, we’ll see stress go through the roof. We still start breaking officers and we will start breaking police forces.

“If I had a meeting with Rishi Sunak I’d tell him that policing is broken, our officers are absolutely broken. I’d say that we’re only just getting back to where we were 12 years ago,” he continued.

Jeremy Hunt will reveal his first Autumn Statement as chancellor on Thursday, November 17. It has been reported that fighting crime is one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s top priorities, but the Budget is likely to include public spending cuts.

“If there’s a return to austerity, the reality is that the public would suffer massively because we just would not have the resources to go and deal with what we deal with now,” said Mr Kent. “Also, we are the reserve function for all the other public services when they can’t manage their demand – we have to go and plug the gaps.

“It would absolutely fall apart, and we would then see 43 forces potentially going into special measures because we would not be able to put any more into it. Over the years of austerity, we’ve already looked at smarter ways of working, ways of making effective cuts. We’ve done all this, so we’re already at the bone.”