Philip Hammond: Police attack chancellor over claim forces should 'move resources' to tackle knife crime

‘Children are dying on our streets and he has the audacity to suggest police need to prioritise,’ says officers’ organisation

Philip Hammond claimed police budgets were rising (PA)

Philip Hammond’s demand police shift existing resources to tackle knife crime rather than expect more funding has been called an insult by the Police Federation.

The Chancellor said forces should move officers away from lower priority crime and on to knife violence

But the Police Federation of England and Wales’ national chairman John Apter lambasted Mr Hammond’s comments, as the country’s stabbings death toll continues to rise.

“Children are dying on our streets and he has the audacity to suggest that the police need to prioritise,” said Mr Apter. “Let me assure him – this is a priority.”

The row erupted on the same day a teenage boy died in West Kensington, becoming the 17th person killed by a knife in London alone in 2019.

Mr Hammond earlier told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the spike in knife crime needed to be tackled through “a surging of resources from other areas of policing activity”.

“That’s what you do in any organisation when you get a specific problem occurring in one area of the operation – you move resources to deal with that,” he said.

Mr Hammond claimed that police budgets were rising, and also said the right Brexit deal would enable money set aside for no-deal to be put into public services over the next three years.

The number of police officers across the 43 forces in England and Wales has fallen by more than 20,000 since 2009, but the prime minister has insisted there is no correlation between the decline and “certain crimes”.

Calling on Mr Hammond to increase funding, Mr Apter said: “Across England and Wales, my members are the ones working flat out to prevent more young people being killed.

“They are often the ones on their knees in the street trying desperately to save the lives of these young victims, they are the ones who have to deliver the terrible news to families that their loved one will never be coming home again.

“And they are doing it with almost 22,000 fewer colleagues than when the Conservative Government came to power.

“It is an insult to my dedicated and hard-working colleagues, and it shows a shocking lack of awareness or understanding of the reality of the crisis happening right now in towns and cities across the country.”

Jodie Chesney, 17, was killed in a knife attack in Harold Hill, east London, on 1 March (Metropolitan Police)

The dispute came as police announced the death of a 37-year-old man who had been injured in a stabbing in Soho on Sunday.

Metropolitan Police also named David Martinez as the 26-year-old Spanish man who died after Wednesday’s stabbing in Leyton, east London.

Also on Thursday, Peter Chesney, father of 17-year-old Jodie Chesney who was killed in a knife attack in east London on Friday, made an emotional appeal for someone "to do the right thing" and help catch her killer.

Elsewhere, a 17-year-old accused of murdering teenager Yousef Makki in a knife attack in Hale Barns on Sunday was granted bail at Manchester Crown Court.

Yousef Makki, 17, was stabbed to death in Hale Barns, on 2 March (Greater Manchester Police ) (Greater Manchester Police)

Greater Manchester Police’s assistant chief constable Rob Potts said his force would be asking the government for more cash so he could pay officers overtime to tackle knife crime.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell accused Mr Hammond of being “tin-eared” and “acting like a management consultant”.

He said: “The two most senior members of the government are in total denial about the impact of police cuts. You can't protect people on the cheap.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan and seven regional police and crime commissioners have written a letter to Theresa May, warning that a “broken” school exclusion system is exacerbating the surge.

“It cannot be right that so many of those who have committed offences have been excluded from school or were outside of mainstream education,” it said.

The letter, sent on Thursday, also urged an end to “off-rolling” – removing pupils from school registers – to increase average exam results.

Additional reporting by PA