By Dominic Browne

Labour have accused the Tory-led coalition of putting the public at risk due to their 20 per cent cuts to the police budget, as a senior counter-terrorist officer becomes their latest victim.

Originally published by Left Foot Forward 

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said:

“To lose the most experienced officers including counter-terror experts shows the damage 20 per cent cuts to the police are doing and the risks the government is taking with public safety.

“David Cameron and Theresa May told the public that police cuts would all be efficiency savings and would protect the frontline, yet what could be more frontline than this?”

This is just one of the many headlines to damage the Tories’ image as the party of “law and order”, as Labour appear to be taking a lead on the issue. Labour have created a police cuts map, showing the axe is falling on over 30,000 police jobs in departments up and down the country.

Left Foot Forward have previously reported how the coalition have ignored a report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), published last July, which said that a “re-design” of the police system could:

“At best… save 12% of central government funding, while maintaining police availability.”

In order to achieve the coalition’s 20 per cent cuts, forces are resorting to the so-called A19 mechanism, allowing for a police officer, with more than 30 years pensionable service (including any amount transferred in from a previous pension scheme), to be forcibly retired, with 28 days notice, provided it is on the grounds of “efficiency”.

This regulation has now forced out the head of the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit, detective chief superintendent Matt Sawers, despite a coalition pledge that frontline policing would not be affected and despite Home Office promises that counter-terrorism funding would also be protected.

Sawers is one of the country’s most senior and experienced counter-terrorism officers. He has run the West Midlands unit since its launch seven years ago and was at the helm during one of the unit’s most high-profile investigations to foil a plot to kidnap and behead a British soldier.