Police numbers are up with Labour

My campaign team recently tried to obtain accurate data from the Metropolitan Police Authority about Police numbers in London by borough.

Unfortunately, their website left a little to be desired - but I'm pleased to report that after highlighting the problems they've overhauled it and it will from now on provide monthly updates, which you can find here.

The good thing about this site is that there are lots of statistics bandied around about the Police by all parties - but these are the basic, unspun figures.

At the end of last November, Wandsworth had 583 Police Officers and 87 Community Support Officers (CSOs) - a total of 670.

In 1997, Wandsworth had 596 Police Officers and no CSOs (they are a Labour initiative since 2000).

The Conservatives claim that this proves Labour has cost the borough officers since we were first elected. Clearly untrue. But even excluding the CSO figure, the Tories' claim is wrong.

The base year for measuring Labour's record is not 1997 but 2000 - because an officer recruited the first day we took office in 1997 would not start work until they had three years of training under their belt - by which time police numbers locally had fallen to 568 thanks to the Conservatives.

So, we actually have fifteen more Police Officers than 2000 and that's before we even start adding in the 87 CSOs.

In fact, to get a true measure of how severely the last Conservative Government cut back on Police, just look at this: in 1993, Wandsworth had 693 Police Officers. So today, including our CSO units, Labour has just about - though still not quite - got our Policing level back to what it was 15 years ago. Never forget the mess Justine Greening's party left our country in.

There's a lot more to do - I want more CSOs and more Police Officers making our borough even safer than it is today. The Council could fund even more CSOs if it had the political will to do so: Ealing (also Conservative-run) has almost twice our number of CSOs despite being a similarly sized borough because their council invests in the Police.

Next time the Conservatives demand more Police, just remember the 125 Police officers they cost Wandsworth the last time they were in power, and the progress we've made correcting their appalling record since then.