Additional £50 million to fight terrorism

The Home Office is to give police forces across the UK a £50 million funding boost as part of a plan to help them fight terrorism. Amber Rudd, Home Secretary, said next year’s counter terrorism budget would rise to £757 million for police after convincing Philip Hammond that more needed to be done to protect the public. The additional money will enhance the intelligence gathering and surveillance capabilities of the force whilst also paying for more armed officers to patrol city centres. The Home Office has been heavily criticised over the past year for it cuts to the police who have had to deal with terror attacks in London and Manchester. According to its data, the total police officer workforce for England and Wales was down by approximately 13 per cent since September 2010. In the days following the knife and van attack in London Bridge which killed eight people, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked Theresa May over the cuts. Since the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich in May 2013 the counter terror services have disrupted 22 plots and nine since the Westminster attack. Intelligence services are currently running over 500 live operations and there were 400 arrests for terrorism-related offences in the year to 30 September - up by 54 per cent on the year before. Amber Rudd, Home Secretary, said of the funding: “This represents our commitment to backing the talented and brave counter terrorism forces with the resources they need to keep people safe. “Since 2015 alone we have increased counter terrorism spending by 30 per cent and pledged more than £500 million in increased funding for the counter terrorism budget, to protect the UK from the ongoing threat posed by terrorism. “This [latest funding] will allow counter terrorism policing to meet head on the threat we face, working closely with our communities and continuing to disrupt those who would want to harm us.”