London mayor elections: Susan Hall promises 1,500 extra police

The Conservative London mayoral candidate has promised an "extra 1,500 police officers" on the streets of the capital if she is elected.

Susan Hall said she wanted to go "back to borough policing" to cut crime.

She pledged to introduce two police bases in every borough, funded as part of an overall £200m investment in policing.

It comes after Labour candidate Sadiq Khan announced he would recruit 1,300 additional officers if elected.

Announcing her policing policies on Wednesday, Ms Hall said "crime is, in my view, getting out of control", adding: "Never before have we needed police around on our streets as much as we do now."

She said she chose to visit the site of the former Eltham police station because it had been "flattened thanks to Sadiq Khan".

"In 32 boroughs I'll put an extra two bases so police will be actually based where they are working," she said.

But, she clarified, this would include hubs to store kit and not every base would have public-facing services.

Asked how she planned to fund the bases, Ms Hall said some of the money would come from a wider package of funding for policing but it also depended on the situation in each borough.

"Some boroughs already own places that we can open up again, in some areas we're going to have to find areas that we can open up in," she explained.

Additionally, the candidate said she would appoint a women's commissioner, whose sole focus would be implementing a strategy to make London safer for women.

She also announced she would fund the installation of knife arches in every London school to make schools "knife-free zones".

Ms Hall said more must also be done to recruit officers into the Metropolitan Police, pointing out Mr Khan had to return £90m in government funding because the force was not able to meet its recruitment target.

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

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

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley 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's spokesperson said Ms Hall was "making bogus unfunded pledges she simply can't deliver".

"The Tories have cut £1bn from the Met budget in real terms since 2010, and the last Tory mayor Boris Johnson closed over 60 police stations when he was mayor.

"Due to Tory funding cuts, Susan's Hall unfunded commitments are based on money that simply doesn't exist."

Liberal Democrat candidate Rob Blackie said: "I find it surprising the Conservatives are proposing more police stations when they had a policy of closing them for many years."

Green candidate Zoe Garbett said she wanted "to see the police out there in the community working to local priorities".

"Through my work as a councillor, I have spent a lot of time building connections between the police and the local community to help officers understand the priorities of communities and local businesses they serve. This is the work I want to do across London."

Ms Hall was also asked about claims that Mr Khan plans to bring in "pay-per-mile" road charging - something he has repeatedly denied.

Earlier this week she faced criticism after a campaign suggested Mr Khan had plans for the charges. Her team also circulated leaflets looking like penalty charge notices with a scannable link to a webpage making the same claim.

Ms Hall reiterated her claim, saying: "Sadiq Khan said that he would never bring in the Ulez expansion... he has."

Mr Khan's spokesperson previously said the circulated leaflets "peddle a barefaced lie", and accused the Conservatives of "deliberately misleading Londoners".

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