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Theresa May has secretly slashed 7,000 local cops she claimed were safe from Tory cuts.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly boasted of protecting the budgets of police forces.

Last June she said: “Since 2015 we have not cut the police but protected their budget.”

But her Government’s own figures directly contradict her claim.

A total of 6,853 police officers and PCSOs were axed from local policing units between 2015 and 2017, according to a Labour analysis of Home Office figures.

Two thirds of forces suffered a fall in the number of uniformed officers and PCSOs in local policing despite Mrs May’s claims she hadn’t cut cops.

(Image: PA)

Shadow Police Minister Louise Haigh MP said: “This is the reality of the Conservatives’ empty promises on policing.

“In the last two years alone, thousands of bobbies have been taken off the beat as overstretched forces struggle to cope with continued cuts in funding.

“It’s time the Tories stopped short-changing the police and give them the resources they need to keep people safe.”

A recent survey revealed nearly half of people in England and Wales have not seen a uniformed officer on foot in the past year.

A third said crime and anti-social behaviour was a big local problem.

Under the Police Objective Analysis functions framework, each individual police function is grouped into a broader group, one of which is local policing.

(Image: Getty)

Local policing is defined as police officers and police community support officers whose primary role involves neighbourhood policing, local incident response, and community liaison.

Comparison of Home Office statistics for the financial year ending March 2015 and March 2017 shows that the number of police officers and PCSOs employed within local policing functions was slashed by 6,853 - from 72,454 to 65,601 - in just two years.

The figures show that 30 out of 43 forces saw a fall the number of officers and PCSOs working in local policing over the period.

Labour today held an opposition day debate on policing and demanded the Government urgently hire an extra 10,000 police officers to keep the public safe.

Mrs May was last week officially rebuked for misleading MPs and the public over false claims that the Government was providing an extra £450million in funding to local police forces in 2018/19.

The chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir David Norgrove, ruled that the claim made by Mrs May repeatedly at Prime Minister’s Questions last month “could have led the public to conclude incorrectly” that the Government was providing an extra £450million for police spending over the next financial year.

(Image: PA)

Ms Haigh, who made the complaint to the statistics watchdog, said that in fact there had been a “flat cash” settlement for police forces in England and Wales that actually amounted to a cut in direct Whitehall grants to the police in real terms.

The Prime Minister’s claim that local police force budgets were being boosted by £450million was repeated by Home Office tweets and in a letter sent out by Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House of Commons.

Sir David said: “We have commented in the past about statements on police funding and emphasised the need for greater precision in the way numbers are used.

“In terms of the particular points you make, the Prime Minister’s statement and the Home Office’s tweet could have led the public to conclude incorrectly that central government is providing an additional £450million for police spending in 2018/19.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “The police funding settlement for 2018/19 that we set out delivers an increase in overall police funding.

“We aim to be as clear as possible in communicating it to the public and have repeatedly said that around £270million of the up to £450million increase in police funding next year results from increased council tax precept income, which is dependant on police and crime commissioners’ decisions.

“Since the funding settlement, almost all police and crime commissioners have decided to use this flexibility to raise extra precept income.”