Labour says home secretary is either incompetent or ‘chose to mislead’ over impact of police cuts on rise in violent crime

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, has denied seeing documents from her department, leaked to the Guardian, which said government cuts to the police had “likely contributed” to a rise in serious violent crime.

On the morning she was due to launch the government’s new strategy for tackling the problem, Rudd insisted that a recent rise in violent crime, including a high-profile series of murders in London, was not connected to police funding cuts.

Amber Rudd denies seeing leaked violent crime report - live updates Read more

“It is not all about police numbers,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday. “I think it is a mistake, and we do a disservice to the communities and the families who have seen these tragedies, by just pointing to police numbers.”

Asked about the leaked Home Office documents, which said policing cuts “may have encouraged” violent offenders, Rudd said: “I haven’t seen this document.”

She added: “There are a lot of documents that go around the Home Office. We do a lot of work in these areas. Of course violent crime is a priority, and as I say I think that you do a disservice to the communities and the families by making this a political tit-for-tat about police numbers.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A slide from the leaked Home Office report into the rise in serious violence, stating that police cuts ‘likely contributed’. Photograph: The Guardian

The shadow policing minister, Louise Haigh, said Rudd’s admission was shocking.

Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP who chairs the Commons home affairs committee, tweeted:

Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) This is shocking. Surely Home Office officials sent the document to Home Sec, to junior ministers and to special advisors? Cant imagine a department withholding from decision makers the evidence & analysis it did for a new strategy. Something has gone very wrong in Home Office https://t.co/E481KFN5lj

The row threatens to overshadow the government’s anti-violence strategy, which officials and ministers have been working on for months. It will include tougher powers to seize acid from people who cannot provide a reason for carrying it, and a crackdown on so-called zombie knives.

In preparation for the launch, officials in February prepared a document on the factors behind the rise in violent crime. The document was marked as “official – sensitive”.

A section on police resources says: “Since 2012-13, weighted crime demand on the police has risen, largely due to growth in recorded sex offences. At the same time officers’ numbers have fallen by 5% since 2014.



“So resources dedicated to serious violence have come under pressure and charge rates have dropped. This may have encouraged offenders. [It is] unlikely to be the factor that triggered the shift in serious violence, but may be an underlying driver that has allowed the rise to continue.”

A highlighted box emphasises the point: “Not the main driver but has likely contributed.”

Responding to this, Rudd said violent crime was a complex area, “and you cannot arrest your way out of this”. She said a reduction in some areas in the number of police community support officers (PCSOs) was down to local decisions.

“It’s up to different police and crime commissioners to make their decisions about how the money is spent,” she said. “Some forces are increasing their numbers of PCSOs, some are cutting them in order to have more funds available for local policing of a different type.”

Home Office statistics show the number of police officers fell from 143,734 in March 2010 to 123,142 in March 2017.



Figures released in November showed a 20% annual rise in gun, knife and serious violent crime across England and Wales, even as the crime survey estimated there had been a 9% overall drop in crime. The Home Office says “traditional crime” nationwide has dropped by almost 40% since 2010.

Speaking before Rudd on Today, Haigh said it would be wrong to make a direct correlation between the number of police and a rise in certain crimes, but that the home secretary had serious questions to answer.

Haigh said: “Now to me there’s two options for her: either she saw that research and she chose to say the exact opposite in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph, or she commissioned that research and she didn’t see it. Either she’s incompetent or she chose to mislead the public.”

After Rudd said she had not seen the documents, Haigh tweeted: