The Government withdrew £31 million in recruitment funding from the Met, despite warnings that the force could be 2,000 officers short by next year.
Ministers earmarked funding to forces across the country as part of a manifesto commitment to recruit 20,000 new police officers in five years by March 2023 under the Police Uplift Programme.
As the Met was the only force in the country not to meet its recruitment targets, it “lost” £30.8m in Home Office grant funding in 2022-23 earmarked for the scheme, according to newly-filed accounts.
A spokesperson for the Mayor said it was “ill-judged” and “deeply regrettable” that the Government withdrew the pot of ring-fenced funding.
But a Home Office spokesperson insisted that it has provided more year-on-year funding for the Met overall for the 2023-24 financial year, saying the force would actually receive an additional £102m compared to last year.
“Against the backdrop of devastating Government cuts, the Mayor is doing everything he can to support the Met to recruit and retain the best officers to serve London’s communities,” said a spokesperson for the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
“This includes investing a record £1billion to help elevate police officer numbers in the Met to their highest and most diverse levels ever.
“Even so, both the Mayor and Commissioner are clear that London needs more officers and it is deeply regrettable that the Government has decided to withdraw funding.
“We are continuing to call on the Government to work with us and support the action being taken by the Mayor to provide London with the number of officers required to help build a better, safer city for all.”
But a Home Office spokesperson said: “We have delivered on the promise we made to the British people to recruit 20,000 additional officers, which means more police on the beat, preventing violence, solving burglaries and cracking down on antisocial behaviour.
“We are keen to ensure that the Metropolitan Police has the resources it needs which is why it will receive up to £3.3 billion in 2023-24, an increase of up to £102m when compared to 2022-23 and now have more officers than the pre Police Uplift Programme peak in 2010.”
Under the Police Uplift Programme, the government provided funding for an additional 4,557 officers over five years to 2023, but the Met missed its recruitment targets by around a thousand officers. As of March, the Met had 34,503 officers.
Met chief Sir Mark Rowley has previously said the target was missed in part due to the force’s scandal-hit reputation.
The force, however, believes it needed 6,000 more officers, and is calling for additional Government funding to make up that gap.
It comes after policing minister Chris Philp called on Sadiq Khan to take more action to prevent the Met being short of up to 2,000 officers by 2024.
In a leaked letter, Mr Philp said there was a “missed opportunity” for the Met to recruit more officers, and that the problem was due to a shortfall in police constable applications “over a sustained period of years.”
The Mayor of London is the capital’s police and crime commissioner, meaning he is responsible for the totality of policing in the capital outside the Square Mile.
But the majority of the Met’s funding originates from central Government.
