UK Budget may Raise Risk for Terrorism
Anti-terror Officer John Yates has warned that UK budget cuts will increase the risk of terrorism attacks. This has received an angry reaction from Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, who has called the warning shroud-waving and alarmism. However, Labour party member Alan Johnson agrees with Yates and says that everyone will be in greater danger if anti-terror operations are cut back.
In Yates’s warning, understood to have been made during the yearly meeting of the Association of Chief Police Officers last Thursday, he said that the cuts are eye-watering. He claims that cutting 25% from the police budget, which is part of the departmental cuts announced in the budget last month, means that the nation’s defenses will be weakened against al-Qaeda. Yates also said that Metropolitan Police will see £87 million cut from their anti-terror budget and other national units will lose £62 million.
Maude, however, has warned Yates about alarming the public. He says that he doesn’t want public servants shroud-waving in public, as there is a special responsibility for them all to be careful about what they say and what they do. It will be really important for police forces, along with other public servants, to focus on cutting unnecessary costs and being as efficient as possible before talking about alarming the public like this, he added.
Johnson has backed Yates up though, saying the warning is a sign that the new government isn’t considering policing and counter-terrorism a priority. If these two areas aren’t ‘ringfenced’ like they were when he was in charge at the Home Office, he continued, the number of police officers will diminish and their ability to counter terrorism will be seriously affected. He added a promise that Labour will oppose cuts to anti-terror budgets in the Commons.