Tory MP blasts waiting for shotgun licence despite supporting big police budget cuts

Ian Liddell-Grainger lashes out after revealing he will miss out on the winter shooting season - but is told he had the option of not voting for steep cuts to police funding

Ian Liddell-Grainger MP with David Cameron during a visit to the Somerset Levels in 2014 (Getty Images)

A Conservative MP has protested at having to wait for his shotgun licence – despite backing big spending cuts to his local police force.

Ian Liddell-Grainger, MP for Bridgewater and Somerset West, revealed he will miss out on the winter shooting season, after forgetting to renew his licence.

He was left fuming when he was told it would take 16 weeks for Avon and Somerset to complete the necessary paperwork.

“I was absolutely appalled. Sixteen weeks to complete one piece of paperwork looks like utter incompetence,” he raged to his local newspaper.

But Mr Liddell-Grainger admitted the police told him that – as a Conservative MP – he had the option of not voting for steep cuts to police budgets.

Mr Liddell-Grainger has backed the Government’s austerity drive, which includes £131m cuts to police funding in this financial year alone.

Since 2010, the number of police posts has plunged by 15,500, or 19.5 per cent – with much bigger percentage cuts in some areas.

By 2020, staffing levels could be down as low as 100,000 – the smallest police force since the mid-1970s.

The shotgun licence row was laid bare in the pages of the Somerset County Gazette, where the MP “voiced his dismay at having to miss out on the winter shooting season”.

A descendent of Queen Victoria, Mr Liddell-Grainger revealed he had been forced to hand in his weapon after failing to renew his license in time.

And he said: “I’ve got the form and I’ve filled it in, but you cannot simply hand these things in at your local police station any more: they have to be posted off.

“When I rang the police to see how long it would take to get the new permit, I was absolutely appalled. Sixteen weeks to complete one piece of paperwork looks like utter incompetence.

“I told the officer I thought it was an unrealistically long time and he just said the police had lots of other things to do. I could almost hear the shrug down the phone.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger then added: “When I mentioned the fact that I was a MP, it was suggested that if the Government gave the force some more money they might be able to get these things done more quickly.”

In 2014, the MP said Avon and Somerset police had little choice but to close 27 police stations to adjust to much lower funding.

A recent report by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners warned that police forces will face a funding black hole as large as £1.2bn by 2020.

Frontline officers are having to be redeployed to carry out backroom tasks to plug the staffing shortfall, it said.

The comments echo a protest last year, when David Cameron lobbied against police cuts in his local area of Oxfordshire, despite overseeing austerity.