Home Secretary Amber Rudd mocked by police after insisting that Tories remain the ‘party of law and order’
Amber Rudd told the Police Federation conference in Birmingham that crime was down despite losses of 20,000 officers through budget cuts since 2010
HOME Secretary Amber Rudd was jeered by rank and file cops yesterday as she insisted the Tories remain the "party of law and order" and that crime is falling.
She came under fire after telling the Police Federation annual conference in Birmingham that crime was down despite losses of 20,000 cops through budget cuts since 2010.
One angry Fed delegate told her: "You can keep saying crime is down. I might as well say I'm the chief ballerina for the Bolshoi Ballet - both are untrue."
Despite recorded crime data showing an increase in offences, particularly gun and knife violence, Ms Rudd insisted the annual crime survey showing a fall was more accurate.
Ministers also claim that increased reporting of crime is positive as it shows a greater willingness of victims to come forward.
Ms Rudd said: "People have different experiences of crime.
";We may all have different views but there is the survey, it is independent and it has stated very clearly that until the rise in violent crime over the past year - which is a different issue that we do need to address - crime has been falling and has fallen by a third."
The Home Secretary was also asked about pay, with some officers apparently so desperate they are resorting to food banks and vouchers.
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To hisses in the audience, Ms Rudd suggested average police earnings are about £40,000 a year.
She also insisted that the Government has protected police budgets amid pleas for more funding and boosts to staffing levels.
Ms Rudd said the Tories are the party which has "always stood for law and order" adding they have "passionately backed" the police and security services.
She said that "the same cannot be said" of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow home secretary
Diane Abbott, adding that together with John McDonnell, they "sound like a group of Marxists in a sixth form debating society".
Delegates laughed as she insisted she was "not saying this for petty, party political reasons".
Ms Rudd told the conference the country owes police an "incredible debt" for their bravery and paid tribute to murdered Westminster bobby Pc Keith Palmer.
Earlier, Fed chairman Steve White claimed policing is "on its knees, in intensive care and fighting for its life".
He said: "In the past I have been accused of scaremongering.
"When I said fewer officers would mean more crime, I was accused of crying wolf.
''And yet in the past year we have seen total recorded crime increase by 9% - a total of 4.8 million offences."