Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Burnham attacks May over police cuts at Home Office questions

It was inevitable that Theresa May would face demands to rethink police cuts at Home Office questions this afternoon. And Labour did indeed make this its main line of attack in the Commons, with Andy Burnham urging the Home Secretary to reconsider reductions in police numbers that might be being considered in the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Burnham has pursued this issue with some gusto since taking the Shadow Home Secretary brief, as it is the one matter where he can be reasonably tub thumping and Burnhamish. Today he was sombre, but it was clear that May was aware that the Paris attacks have made an extremely difficult set of cuts even more difficult for ministers to defend.

Her answer was careful, arguing that it wasn’t just about numbers but training too. But she will know that in politics it is also about numbers, and the climate now will not be hospitable for a government seen to be cutting numbers, even if they are in jobs that have little apparent link to countering terror attacks.

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