Labour's Sadiq Khan pledges 1,300 more officers for London

Labour will pledge 1,300 more officers to boost London's neighbourhood policing, Sadiq Khan has announced.

It will be a mix of warranted police officers, community support officers and special constables, he said.

But his opponents claim he has failed to meet existing recruitment targets and been forced to give back tens of millions of pounds to the Home Office.

The Met Police commissioner warned recently that the force was forecast to have 2,600 fewer officers next year.

London has a record number of nearly 34,000 police officers, backed by 1,300 community support officers, 1,300 specials and nearly 11,000 staff in administrative roles.

But officers are retiring at a faster rate than new ones are being taken on, down to a combination of general recruitment problems in the public sector and extra vetting prompted by the review by Dame Louise Casey.

Sir Mark Rowley also told a committee of MPs in April last year the force had missed its recruitment target "in part" because "the reputation of the organisation at the moment doesn't help".

Mr Khan was joined by shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper on a walkabout in south London to announce the extra officers.

Ms Cooper said it was part of Labour's "national guarantee" to get more than 13,000 more officers on the frontline across the country over the next four years.

"Sadiq has already delivered more neighbourhood support to communities, including dedicated local officers, but we need to go further," she said.

"This comes alongside the record investment I'm already delivering in City Hall to keep Londoners safe," said Mr Khan.

His mayoral challengers said his pledge would be met with scepticism given £91m had needed to be returned to the government because it had not been used on new officers.

"He failed to meet his recruitment targets, and was the only police and crime commissioner in the country to do so," said Tory candidate Susan Hall.

"He isn't taking policing seriously, and this latest pledge isn't worth the paper it's written on."

Green candidate Zoe Garbett said: "I would focus on investing in community policing and doing everything possible to build trust between the police and communities.

"We also need the police to be listening to Londoners to find out what will make them safer and deprioritise things that don't."

Liberal Democrat candidate Rob Blackie said: "Recently the mayor has failed to recruit police - and has had to give money back to the government. So Londoners will be sceptical that he's going to succeed this time around.

"Today the Metropolitan Police are catching rapists half as often as when Sadiq Khan became mayor in 2016. And 6,000 police are stuck in the back office instead of the frontline."

The Metropolitan Police has asked the Home Office if it could use the money to take on more civilian staff which would free up uniformed officers for the beat.

Ms Cooper did not say whether she would commit to this, but insisted Labour's strategy was centred on reviewing the balance of civilian and uniformed staff.

Ms Hall has vowed to restore an officer of commander rank to be in charge of each of London's 32 boroughs, a model dismantled during Mr Khan's mayoralty.

Labour said every borough still has a superintendent, and the intention was to have two dedicated constables and a community support officer in each of the capital's 679 electoral wards.

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