Today’s budget statement by the Chancellor included no additional funding for the police in England and Wales.

Crime is rising and police numbers are falling but you wouldn’t think the Government cared looking at today’s budget. The police barely got a mention in the Chancellor’s speech despite forces up and down the country being desperate for a cash-injection.

It is clear where the money is going – £3.7bn to help the Conservatives drive through a hard Brexit. Just a fraction of this money would have been transformative for the police but as usual we see the Tories putting politics above everything else.

Latest statistics showed a 13% increase in police recorded crime. Meanwhile, police numbers falling and at their lowest levels in 14 years. There were 198,684 workers employed by the 43 police forces in England and Wales in March 2017, a decrease of 2,237 compared with a year earlier.