Theresa May oversaw cuts to police funding and numbers as Home Secretary which are coming back to haunt her as Prime Minister.

As Home Secretary she was tasked with wielding the axe to police budgets and also watered down stop and search powers.

But after funding fell and police powers were challenged violent crime has soared substantially.

During her first five years as Home Secretary police forces in England and Wales saw their central funding slashed by £2.2billion in real terms - the equivalent of 22 per cent - the National Audit Office found.

As funding tumbled so did police numbers with officer numbers falling from 144,235 in 2010 to 123,505 in 2017.

In the year to March 2010 - two months before the Coalition came to power and Mrs May was installed as Home Secretary - there were 699,011 incidents of violent crime, according to the Office for National Statistics.

But this number had doubled to 1.3 million in the year ending June 2017, the ONS said.

The number of violent crimes has increased in the years following heavy cuts to police budgets which

And there have been 50 alleged murders in London so far this year - making the capital's streets streets bloodier than New York's.

Critics have said the cuts which the Tories imposed during the years of austerity are now being felt on Britain's streets in the explosion of violence.

How many police officers have been lost from the streets of England and Wales? Police officer numbers have dropped since 2010. Here are the figures: 2010: 144,235 2011: 139,585 2012: 134,580 2013: 129,956 2014: 128,346 2015: 127,485 2016: 124,368 2017: 123,505 Source: House of Commons library Advertisement

And now Mrs May is in Downing Street rather than the Home Office they say she is reaping what was sewn during the Coalition years.

Shadow Police Minister Lou Haigh told Mail Online: 'The first job of any Government is to provide the resources to keep people safe.

'With their billion-pound cut to the Met Police, Theresa May and Amber Rudd have conspicuously failed to do so.

'We have seen eight years of cuts to youth services, health and education.

'It seems like the Government have forgotten about being tough on the causes of crime.'

Ken Marsh, head of the Met Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, told Mail Online: 'It is pretty straight forward - either we fund the police correctly so they can perform the role or we don't get the same policing.'

Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow in north London, where a 16 year-old Amaan Shakoor was shot and killed, said she has 'begged and pleaded' with ministers to pump more money into policing.

Critics have said the cuts which Theresa May (pictured in the House of Commons late last month) imposed as Home Secretary during the years of austerity are now being felt on Britain's streets in the explosion of violence

She told the BBC: 'I've never seen resources so scarce on the ground - to be able to have the relationships with people to get that community intelligence, to support what our police are doing.

How stop-and-search powers have changed As Home Secretary Mrs May introduced changes in 2014 which meant police are only allowed to stop people when there is 'reasonable grounds for suspicion'. And it warned that where officers misuse the powers they would face disciplinary action. She introduced the measures amid widespread anger to the power, particularly among the black and ethnic minority population, who said it was used disproportionately against them. In the years following the reforms stop and search fell to their lowest level since the power was introduced 17 years ago. But violent crime has risen - sparking calls for the power to be taken up again. Under current stop-and-search laws, police are allowed to search a suspect if the have 'reasonable grounds' that the person is carrying a weapon, drugs or stolen property. Such justification might be that they have witnessed the suspect putting the knife into a pocket. However emergency section 60 powers can be enforced in a set location, such as a town or city, which removes the 'reasonable grounds' criteria. Advertisement

'We have lost 100 police around here already from the cuts coming through form government and I have stood up in Parliament and begged and pleaded with ministers to give us those people.'

Labour has said the rise in crime lies in cuts to police budgets and said they would fund another 10,000 officers if elected.

Mrs May was made Home Secretary when David Cameron was elected in 2010 and she held the post until she became leader in 2016.

But the Government took the axe to funding and services in an effort to bring down Britain's ballooning debt and deficit - which soared in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

Meanwhile, the threat posed by terrorism has soared with five strikes against the UK last year alone - killing over 100 people, injuring many more and providing a significant drain on police resources.

Police chiefs and politicians have warned that over-stretched forces have had to slash the number of officers out on the streets getting the vital intelligence needed to tackle violence and gang crime.

And while Mrs May oversaw cuts to police budgets as Home Secretary, she also watered down stop and search powers which are now being blamed on the spike in crime.

She introduced changes in 2014 which meant police are only allowed to stop people when there is 'reasonable grounds for suspicion'.

And it warned that where officers misuse the powers they would face disciplinary action.

She introduced the measures amid widespread anger to the power, particularly among the black and ethnic minority population, who said it was used disproportionately against them.

In the years following the reforms stop and search fell to their lowest level since the power was introduced 17 years ago.

But violent crime has risen - sparking calls for the power to be taken up again.

The Metropolitan Police has launched 49 murder investigations since the start of January which include five shootings and 31 stabbings

A Home Office spokeswoman said: 'Police have the resources they need to carry out their vital work.

'We have provided a strong and comprehensive funding settlement that will increase funding by £460m from 2018/19, including £280m of direct funding raised through increases in Council Tax precept which police forces can spend locally.

'All forms of violent crime are totally unacceptable.

'This Government is taking action to restrict access to offensive weapons as well as working to break the deadly cycle of violence and protect our children, families and communities.

'The UK has some of the toughest gun laws in the world and we are determined to keep it that way.'