London Labour Party

Alan Johnson issues neighbourhood police team challenge to Conservatives


Campaigning in Hammersmith, Labour’s Home Secretary Alan Johnson and Labour’s Minister for London Tessa Jowell have issued a challenge to every Conservative candidate in London to back the capital’s safer neighbourhood police teams, after Conservative mayor Boris Johnson refused to guarantee their future. 

Alan Johnson said:
“Labour will ensure that frontline policing is protected but the Conservatives won’t match this guarantee. The Conservative threat to frontline services is shown here in London where the future of local police teams is at risk from the Conservative mayor Boris Johnson. We are issuing a challenge to every Tory candidate in the capital today to say where they stand on Conservative Boris Johnson’s failure to protect the neighbourhood police guarantee.”

Tessa Jowell said:
“Every ward in London currently has a minimum Safer Neighbourhood Team of beat officers comprising one sergeant, two police constables and three PCSOs to patrol local streets. Boris Johnson is cutting police numbers and has quit as chair of the police authority. Londoners are entitled to know from every Conservative candidate in London whether they back our safer neighbourhood police teams. The mayor refuses to guarantee they will continue to be based on their existing form. The Conservatives would threaten the safety of our streets by refusing to match our commitment to frontline policing.”

Under questioning from the London Assembly at Mayor’s Questions Boris Johnson has repeatedly refused to guarantee the future of the minimum deployment of neighbourhood teams, saying ‘I have no intention of imposing a one-size-fits-all model across the whole of London’, and describing it as ‘a pointless piece of top-downery’.