PM On Collision Course With Police Over Cuts

A senior police chief has hit out at the Prime Minister's claim police budget cuts are "totally achievable", saying less money will mean fewer officers.

Sir Hugh Orde from the Association of Chief Police Officers was speaking after David Cameron said there had been "far too few" officers deployed at the start of the trouble but refused to reconsider the proposed cuts.

Mr Cameron recalled Parliament on Thursday to debate the causes of recent disorder and the police response.

Sir Hugh told BBC's Newsnight: "We are, as a police service, determined to keep people as safe as we can with the resources we have been given.

"It is true there are cuts of 20% to policing over this current spending period.

"Inevitably and predictably that will lead to less police officers, let me me clear about that. It will also lead to less police staff."

On Thursday, Mr Cameron insisted the cuts would be "totally achievable" without any reduction in the number of police on the streets.

"At the end of this process of making sure our police budgets are affordable, we will still be able too surge as many police on to the streets as we have in recent days in London, in Wolverhampton, in Manchester," he said.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has urged the Government to reconsider the planned cuts.

The debate was sparked when London Mayor Boris Johnson called for plans to reduce police numbers to be reconsidered in the wake of the disturbances.

Today Mr Cameron is expected to make a regional visit to see the damage caused by violence this week. Mr Miliband is expected in south London later.

The riots in English towns and cities have claimed four lives.

Richard Mannington Bowes from Ealing suffered serious head injuries on Monday as violence spread across London. He died last night.

Shazad Ali, Abdul Musavir and Haroon Jahan were killed when they were hit by a car during violence in Birmingham.

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