Bedfordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner accused of "failing to deliver" by Luton MP

Mid Bedfordshire’s Conservative by-election candidate, who is also the county’s police and crime commissioner, has hit back at comments made by Luton South MP, Rachel Hopkins.

In a Tweet posted on June 29, the Labour MP said Festus Akinbusoye had “failed to deliver” for our region [sic] and the police service is having to rely on “millions of pounds in grants to plug funding gaps caused by his party”.

In the accompanying video she added: “We need to see a police and crime commissioner that doesn’t just secure one-off grants, but actually really gets a win for our county by getting a change to the funding formula.

“It’s his government after all.”

In a second tweet (July 3) she included a clip of her speaking in the Commons about the police funding review.

“Using the maximum police precept on council tax, having to tap into half a million pounds reserves and yet again relying on grant funding shows that the Bedfordshire PCC has failed to secure the long term funding our force really desperately needs,” she said.

“And now he’s off pursuing his personal ambitions as the next Tory candidate in Mid Beds.”

Mr Akinbusoye responded by saying the force has its highest ever number of police officers, and it was the first force in England to be rated as ‘Outstanding’ by His Majesty’s Inspectorate for the way it manages persistent offenders.

“And having the highest number of dedicated community police officers is a matter of public record,” he added.

“I could talk of the much improved performance of Bedfordshire Police in tackling residential burglaries being one of the best in the country, and the leading force in the disruption of organised crime groups in the Eastern Region.

“These happened under my watch, with the support of a hard working office team, and a committed police force. All while being one of the least well funded police force as the MP rightly noted.

“Alas, what was clearly omitted, perhaps intentionally because there might be an election in the offing, is that it was the Labour Party that introduced the funding formula which prioritised larger urban and metropolitan areas for the greatest police funding for reasons I will leave [for others to determine].

“Efforts to change this grossly unfair formula have thus been met with fierce push back from the benefiting police forces who now know they might lose out when this finally happens, while forces like Bedfordshire gain,” he said.

He added that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the funding formula review is being looked into by the Treasury and Mr Sunak was hopeful of the formal consultation starting in “due course”.

“This is the most progress made on the formula in nearly a decade,” Mr Akinbusoye said.

“In terms of the special grants, I am very grateful for the government’s continued recognition of the specific threats posed to our communities in Bedfordshire by organised crime groups, and criminals using guns and other weapons, which is why we continue to receive these grants.

“I have always been honest with our residents about areas of concern I have with force performance, and I will continue to work with the Chief Constable to address these while I remain in post as police and crime commissioner,” he said.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Rachel Hopkins if she acknowledged that the OPCC’s successes in winning grants have enabled the force to continue to fund crime fighting initiatives – and if she could supply the details of a PCC that had been successful in changing the funding formula for their force.

She said: “The Conservatives delayed updating the police funding formula in 2015, meaning Bedfordshire Police Force has continued to be underfunded by the Conservative Government.

“Bedfordshire Police go above and beyond to protect our local communities but are not receiving the fair resourcing they need, given that the county faces significant, complex crime, from county lines to rural crime, to the demands of an international airport.

“I have worked with Bedfordshire MPs from different political parties to lobby the government to secure a review of the funding formula that takes account of this complexity. We now need to see action, not delay.

“Instead of pursuing his personal ambitions, the PCC should be focused on delivering for our county by pressing his own Conservative Party to get on with reforming the funding formula.

“Relying on special grants each year and increasing the police precept to balance the budget is not sustainable and fails to provide the police the certainty they need to keep our communities safe,” she said.