Terror attacks ‘tipping police budget over edge’

Staffordshire’s police and crime commissioner has said that the need for more officers following the recent terror attacks is tipping their budget ‘over the edge’. Matthew Ellis has called for more government funding for local counter-terrorism work and the two per cent cap on how much he police can ask for from council taxpayers raised. The Home Office said counter-terrorism funding would rise by 30 per cent in 2022. Ellis said that local commissioners ‘should have the ability to raise the money that they think is necessary’. He told BBC’s Sunday Politics West Midlands he wanted to make decisions over spending and be held to account ‘because the whole point of PCCs was more accountability’. He said day-to-day policing in Staffordshire was in a ‘fairly good position’ financially but the ‘additional resources that are on the streets now are tipping finances over the edge’. He added: “I would be more than willing to have a conversation with the 1.2 million people who I represent across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent and say 'guys this is why I need to put the council tax up a bit more' and then it's down to me to justify that.” Bill Cash, Conservative MP for Stone, said: “I actually do think what Matthew is saying needs to be very seriously considered and I shall be taking it back to the home secretary when I get back to Parliament.”