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Theresa May was warned two years ago that cuts to policing were putting Manchester and national security at risk.

In a face-to-face meeting an award-winning Manchester police officer Mrs May was told that Tory cuts to community policing left officers without the intelligence that was needed to keep the city safe from a terrorist attack.

Inspector Damian O’Reilly was named Britain’s community policeman of the year in 2010, but quit his dream role after he could no longer stomach the affect of government policy.

In 2015, he hit out at the then Home Secretary Mrs May in front of a huge audience at the Police Federation’s annual conference in Bournemouth.

(Image: Andy Stenning)

Insp O'Reilly, who left community policing in 2012, warned that swingeing cuts to Greater Manchester Police’s funding were "cutting away at the muscle" of the force and said savings were leaving officers feeling "undervalued".

"I have worked in inner city Manchester for 15 years," Insp O'Reilly told Mrs May at a Police Federation conference in 2015.

"I felt passionate about what I was doing but in 2010 I had to leave. I couldn't take it any more because the changes that have been imposed have caused community policing to collapse.

"Intelligence has dried up. There aren't local officers, they don't know what's happening. They're all reactive, there's no proactive policing locally. That is the reality ma'am."

He added: "Neighbourhood policing is critical to dealing with terrorism. We run the risk here of letting communities down, putting officers at risk and ultimately risking national security and I would ask you to seriously consider the budget and the level of cuts over the next five years.”

Yesterday, Head of the Police Federation Steve White said that the Tory squeeze on resources was underlined by the Prime Minister’s decision to draft in the Army to protect the landmark sites.

Mr White said that slashed budgets had left the police unable to deal with events like the attack in Manchester.

He said: “There is no ignoring the fact that we, the police, simply do not have the resources to manage an event like this on our own,” he said.

Some 20,000 police jobs have been cut since the Conservatives came to power in 2010 and budgets slashed by around 4% every year when May was Home Secretary.