Milton Keynes Labour are calling on one of the city’s Tory MPs to come clean on police funding and admit breaking election promises, calling claims of extra police funding a con.

At the General Election in 2019 the Conservatives promised extra police funding, and today during Prime Ministers questions the Prime Minister claimed to have increased police funding in response to a question from Ben Everitt MP for MK North.

However more than half of that funding will be due to a 7% rise in Police Tax being proposed by the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner. The police tax, or levy, is collected in the Council Tax payment but set by the directly elected Police Commissioner, not MK Council.

Mr Everitt also claimed hundreds of extra offers would be recruited for Milton Keynes when in fact that number was for the whole of Thames Valley.

Cllr Lauren Townsend, Cabinet Member for Community Safety said: “It is quite clear that government claims to be increasing funding for the police are not what they seem. It’s obvious the Conservatives misled people on the numbers of extra police and where the funding would come from.”

She continued: “We welcome extra police funding and extra officers. but the reality is that it’s a massive 7% rise in Police Tax that is paying for them, not central government. They seem to have forgotten the fact that more police would be paid for with a tax rise in their manifesto. We should also not forget that the local Tory MP claimed there would be hundreds of extra officers in MK, when the truth is that they are spread out over the huge Thames Valley area.”

She concluded: “The extra police should be paid for by central government and not through the regressive Police Tax. The Tories should come clean and admit they didn’t tell the truth and promises about extra funding and hundreds more police for MK were a misleading con.”