One of the political ramifications of the recent London riots has been the clash between Boris and his Government colleagues over planned police cuts.
The Mayor launched ‘an emphatic defence of his call for the Government to reverse planned police cuts’ in the Mail on Sunday , revealing that ‘crime has plummeted in the capital since the streets were flooded with officers.’
In an interview with the newspaper, Boris said: “Muggings and knife crime are down. The key lesson is that police numbers have got to be kept high, and people want to see robust policing.”
Boris also said: “In the current circumstances, going into the Olympics, with London’s population growing, we must keep policing at the appropriate level, which means 32,500 officers.”
However, the Mayor’s comments were dismissed by Chancellor George Osborne who has ruled out a change to the planned cuts despite the riots. Osborne said the Government was committed to reforms aimed at trimming £2 billion from the annual budgets of forces in England and Wales.
Boris said that the police swoops following riots had ‘hoovered up’ known offenders and he also called for the rioters to be ostracised by society.
“About 69 per cent had previous convictions. So you are looking at a lot of crims,” he said. “It is very important that good comes out of these events. A big fat rock was lifted up to show the creepy crawlies underneath. We are going to shine a torch on them and we are going to get rid of them.
“People want to see people handed in. Society must ostracise these people. We ask parents and people who know looters to tender that information to the police. They can expect the knock in the night, to be ostracised, and to be turned into lepers by the rest of society.”