Spending review: Rachel Reeves in standoff over police budgets
Just 48 hours out from the government’s spending review on Wednesday, Rachel Reeves faces a tax and spend tug-of-war between senior Cabinet ministers and the realities of the public finances.
Yvette Cooper looks to be the major remaining holdout, with substantial cuts to Home Office funding expected at the spending review and no funding deal yet agreed with the Treasury.
According to a BBC News report, Home Office ministers believe that there might not be enough cash to fund the 13,000 new police and community support officers promised by Labour at the general election.
Cooper’s Tory opposite number, Chris Philp, has warned against cutting police budgets while the UK continues to be hit with “extraordinary” tax rises.
The shadow home secretary said: “I think I’m very concerned that police numbers may fall already this current financial year, so before this spending review, we are seeing police numbers falling.”
Philp hit out at the government’s apparent ring-fencing of green initiatives at the expense of other day-to-day spending.
He added: “Ed Miliband is proposing to spend £37bn on his various green plans, including buying huge numbers of solar panels from China, with which he plans to cover the British countryside, while at the same time shutting down oil and gas in the North Sea.”
Spending review winners and losers
And while Angela Rayner is thought to have settled spending on housing with the Chancellor last night, the Deputy PM’s department is still expected to lose out at the spending review.
Another senior Labour figure expected to oversee a minimal bounce from the funding decisions is Sadiq Khan – with major implications for London.
According to Politico, senior figures around the Mayor of London believe that the Capital will see none of the £113bn in capital spending expected to be announced on Wednesday.
Over the weekend, the government revealed a £86bn “boost” to research and development (R&D) in the UK – which it claims will return £7 for every £1 sunk into new science and technology.
Meanwhile, technology minister Sir Chris Bryant has denied in an interview on Times Radio that the spending review will mark a return to austerity – but instead that budgets will be “more stretched” than before.