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The number of police officers has fallen to a 30-YEAR low - at the same time as cops record biggest crime surge in a decade.

Official statistics show there were 123,142 officers across all ranks in England and Wales at the end of March this year.

This was a fall of 0.7% on 2016, and the lowest number at the end of a financial year since comparable records began in 1996.

A Home Office report warned: "Records earlier than this are not directly comparable; however, they indicate that this is the lowest number of officers since 1985."

The revelation will fuel questions over forces' capacity to counter threats including terrorism, knife crime and online fraud.

And it comes after repeated calls by Labour to pump cash into police budgets and hire more officers.

Labour MP Angela Eagle declared: "Police cuts have gone too far." Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott added: "This a damning indictment of the Tory record."

(Image: Carl Court/Getty Images)

In separate statistics released at almost exactly the same time, police recorded the largest annual rise in crime in a decade.

The number of crimes in England and Wales recorded by the police rose 10% on the same period in 2015/16, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In a different measure, there were an estimated 11 million offences covered by the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW), including new experimental figures of fraud and cyber crimes.

John Flatley, head of crime statistics for the ONS, said: "The latest figures show the largest annual rise in crimes recorded by the police in a decade.

"While ongoing improvements to recording practices are driving this volume rise, we believe actual increases in crime are also a factor in a number of categories."

(Image: PA)

Violence against the person soared 18% to 175,060 offences, while theft was up 7% to 118,774 crimes, and public order offences jumped 39% to 78,697.

The ONS said there was a 7% reduction in offences recorded by the CSEW, when fraud and cyber crimes were excluded - falling from 6.3 million to 5.9 million.

On staffing, when other personnel such as PCSOs and civilian staff are included, the total workforce employed by the 43 forces in England and Wales stood at 198,684 at the end of March.

This is the lowest number in the police workforce since March 2003.

Police staffing levels have come under the spotlight in recent months as Britain was hit by a flurry of terrorist attacks.

Hundreds of officers have been assigned to counter-terror investigations as security services confront an unprecedented threat.

Forces around the country have recorded rises in offences including knife crime, and are attempting to combat the activities of fraudsters and cyber criminals.

(Image: PA)

In addition, Scotland Yard is mounting a huge investigation into the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Earlier this week, it emerged retired Metropolitan Police officers had been asked to consider returning to work as the country's largest force faces "unprecedented demand" on its detective capability.

The developments have prompted fresh scrutiny of police funding, with a string of warnings that the service cannot absorb further budget squeezes.

In March a watchdog delivered a highly critical assessment of the "potentially perilous" state of British policing and issued an unprecedented warning that a shortage of detectives and investigators amounted to a "national crisis".

The Government claims it has protected overall police funding in real terms since the 2015 spending review.

But ministers have been accused of "breaking their promise" to protect budgets after reports consistently showed core cash grants being cut.

And campaigners say the police need real-terms protection, not just the same amount of cash, to keep fighting crime at the same rate.