Ed Balls 'fearful' as Yorkshire police face most serious cuts

In his first interview in the job, Mr Balls told the Yorkshire Post the coalition was being "dangerous and foolhardy" by inflicting rapid spending cuts at the same time as radical plans to introduce elected police commissioners.

Mr Balls said three of the region's forces – West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside – are among those most at risk from the cuts because grants from Government make up a large part of their overall funding.

Others – including North Yorkshire – receive a far greater proportion of their funding from council tax, so an across-the-board cut in Government grants would affect them less.

"Three of our four forces are most exposed to the cut in central grant," said Mr Balls. "The only other part of the country materially worse placed is the West Midlands where the Chief Constable has already come out publicly and said he thinks there will be over 1,200 officers lost in the West Midlands alone.

"I'm going to be talking to the police locally to say anything we can do to support them in trying to reduce the impact on police numbers, we will. But this is putting chief constables in an impossible situation."

Funding for police is set to be cut by 14 per cent over the next four years, and Home Secretary Theresa May has insisted: "We are clear that savings can be made without affecting front-line policing."

Official figures show that while North Yorkshire Police receives 59.6 per cent of its overall funding from central Government grants, the other three forces each receive 74 per cent or more, so if grants receive the same across-the-board cuts, they will be hit harder.

Ministers will be under pressure to adjust the cuts to take this into account.

Mr Balls said he was "fearful" about the impact of a 20 per cent cut in the Home Office budget – with police forces facing 14 per cent cuts – and accused the Home Secretary of failing to defend the department.

He also condemned plans for police commissioners to be elected in 2012, saying: "I'm still waiting to find anyone who thinks this is a good proposal."