Yvette Cooper cancels visit to Milton Keynes after pledging more police

Labour shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper pledged to increase the number of police officers on the streets in Milton Keynes – even if she referred to the city as a town - but has cancelled a planned visit.

Cooper, the MP for Normanton, had stated the opposition would significantly increase police numbers, if her party came to power.

She was due in MK this morning to speak with community leaders. But the visit was cancelled on Sunday with no specific reason given.

Labour is pledging to increase the number of police and PCSOs in the UK by 13,000 more people than included in the current Conservative plans.

Data provided by the party shows that officers have fallen from 3,079 in 2015 to 2,041 in 2022 in Milton Keynes’ region.

Between June 2021 to June 2022 there has been a 21% increase in theft offences in Milton Keynes, robberies have increased by 10% and sexual offences have increased by 28%.

Labour has a fully-funded plan to invest £370m a year to restore neighbourhood policing.

That will mean around an additional 20 officers and PCSOs based directly in community teams in Milton Keynes.

Thames Valley Police announced on Friday (21/10/22) it received 1,600 officer applications between April and September.

Analysis of Home Office statistics by the Liberal Democrat group in MK showed the number of police officers had fallen in the Thames Valley.

Data covering 2021 showed a decline in policing numbers, despite a national recruitment drive launched by the Government.

Shadow secretary Cooper said: “Over the last 12 years, the Conservatives have decimated neighbourhood policing.

“In towns like Milton Keynes, people just don’t see police on the streets anymore.

“Since the Conservatives came to power fewer criminals are being caught and little is done about antisocial behaviour.

“This can’t go on. Labour has a plan to bring police back into our communities to tackle crime and its causes and to build community confidence.

“Milton Keynes needs a strong voice like Emily Darlington to stand up for you in parliament.”

When confronted with these figures a spokesman announced the force is happy with the Government uplift programme.

The spokespeman told The Citizen: "The National Police Uplift Programme presents a fantastic opportunity to increase the number of police officers across the Thames Valley. It will see us recruit an additional 598 officers.

“Thames Valley Police continues to attract a high number of applicants looking to serve their communities as Police Officers and to date (figures as at 31 December 2021) we have recruited 229 officers towards our Uplift target, achieving higher levels of diversity than at any previous time; with 14.2% of all new officers in the past 12 months coming from ethnically diverse backgrounds and in the same period 49.8% of our new recruits have been female.

"However we need to carefully forecast and monitor turnover as well as recruitment success in order to maintain our progress.

“We are confident we have robust plans in place to take full advantage of the opportunities provided by Uplift.”

A Home Office spokesman added: “We’re putting more police on our streets to keep communities safe and the government is on track to deliver its commitment to recruit 20,000 additional officers by March 2023.”