UK NEWS

ANGER OVER LABOUR ADS PAID FOR BY TAXPAYERS

DAVIS: Investigation

Saturday March 1,2008

By Tom Whitehead Home Affairs Correspondent

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LABOUR has been accused of using money meant to promote a policing scheme as election advertising.

The Home Office yesterday disclosed that newspaper adverts to publicise neighbourhood policing – dismissed as a gimmick – cost a total of £148,117.

That would be enough to put three officers on the street for a year.

Critics accused Labour of using taxpayers’ cash for political marketing gimmicks and said the plans might breach Whitehall rules on publicity ahead of local government elections on May 1.

Tight limits will be imposed from April 10. Restrictions ahead of the London mayoral ballot began on March 18.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has written to the Electoral Commission demanding an investigation.

In his letter to chairman Sam Younger, Mr Davis said: “This advertisement is ostensibly dealing with new government policy on local policing, but in reality is thinly-disguised political marketing for the Labour Party at the taxpayer’s expense.

“In addition, the advertisements have been placed during the period of purdah covering the local elections, contravention of the rules on political campaigning. I would formally request that you investigate this and any related instances of Government funds being used for political campaigning and take the requisite action to prevent its repetition.

“Under Labour the only people the police are accountable to are ministers in Whitehall. This is the real problem and this gimmick will not solve that.

“The real answer is to slash police red tape and make the police genuinely accountable to local communities, not yet another headline-grabbing initiative that will exacerbate, not solve, the existing problem.”

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The key to the policy’s success is that the public know how to engage with their local teams.

“Police forces have been promoting their teams in local areas over the last few weeks, and the Home Office, with the national police representative bodies, has a responsibility to support this activity nationally.”

Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith also unveiled plans for a “policing pledge” to be drawn up locally and nationally to give the public a greater say in how their streets are policed. Minimum standards are also to be introduced, such as how quickly a call to the police should be answered.

Officials said neighbourhood teams would work with residents to draw them up.