Prescott aims for ‘top cop’ role as Labour takes on police cuts

Leader Ed Miliband said yesterday his party still firmly opposes the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) but it will do its best to win elections scheduled for November which will be hugely important for the future of the police service.

Labour’s most high-profile candidate for the new PCC roles will be Lord Prescott, who has won the party’s nomination to fight for control of the Humberside Police Force seat.

The former Deputy Prime Minister said he was honoured to have won the nomination and pledged to be the “people’s voice” in the forthcoming PCC elections.

Lord Prescott is one of a string of Labour figures who have spoken out against PCCs but opted to stand as a candidate anyway.

Mr Miliband said that with five months left until the elections, the party has little choice but to make “the best of a bad job”.

Speaking to party activists at a community centre in Birmingham, the Doncaster North MP said: “We didn’t seek these police commissioner elections – we thought that if you were spending £125m most people would want that money spent on the police, not on new elections.

“But if these elections do go ahead – if the Government insists on them going ahead – we, Labour, are determined to make the best of a bad job. What we are going to be arguing for in these elections is very, very important.

“First of all we are going to be saying taking officers off the streets is the wrong thing to do – it’s not what our communities want, it’s not what the police want.”

Mr Miliband said the police service has faced an uphill struggle since the coalition Government came to power and introduced sweeping public sector cuts.

“They have certainly been fighting against the odds in the last couple of years,” he said.

“Fighting against the odds with a Government that hasn’t been listening to them – fighting against the odds with a Government that is cutting 16,000 police officers.”

The introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners is a flagship Conservative policy which is part of the party’s “localism” drive to give more power back to local communities.

Each PCC will be tasked with cutting crime and delivering an effective and efficient police service within its force area.

The Home Office says the new role will provide “stronger and more transparent accountability” to the police and make forces answerable to the communities they serve.

Labour is the first party to announce its candidates for the forthcoming elections, which will take place in each force area on November 15.

Lord Prescott beat off a challenge from retired police superintendent Keith Hunter to take the Humberside nomination.

“I am really honoured to have been chosen by Labour members to be their Police and Crime Commissioner candidate,” the Labour peer said.

“I intend to spend the next few months travelling the region listening to the people, from south bank to north bank, from village to city.

“I will be the people’s voice. They will shape their policing priorities with the police – not Whitehall.”

Labour’s candidates to head up the other three police forces in Yorkshire are all local councillors. In West Yorkshire, the candidate will be Mark Burns-Williamson, who has chaired the police authority for the past nine years.

He said: “Across Yorkshire and Humber we’ve already seen 1,845 police officers axed, and by 2015 the Government’s estimating West Yorkshire alone will have lost more than 750 officers.

“That’s why it’s so important for Labour to be contesting these elections”

In South Yorkshire, the police authority’s vice-chairman Shaun Wright beat off a challenge from former chief constable Med Hughes to take the Labour nomination.

In North Yorkshire, York Council’s former deputy leader Ruth Potter will stand for Labour.