Tim Farron challenges Home Secretary on controversial police merger proposals

On the floor of the House of Commons yesterday, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron urged the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood not to include Cumbria in new plans to merge police forces.

It was recently announced that the Home Secretary is considering merging England’s 43 police constabularies into as few as 12 or 15 larger regional forces.

The plans raise fears that we could lose police resources from our county to tackle crime in places like Preston and Lancaster.

Earlier this month, Tim and the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of Cumbria, Libby Bateman, started a public petition, calling on the Government to drop the plans.

Speaking during Home Office questions, Tim said: “Police efficiency is the argument being used to propose the merger of Lancashire and Cumbria police forces, something which I strongly oppose. 

“Lancashire is a wonderful county, but it is a county that has many urban centres with larger populations. 

“Does the Home Secretary agree that there is a real risk that the people of Cumbria will see our police officers being drawn down to those larger, more populous places in Lancashire and that it would be wise to call off the merger?”

Shabana Mahmood replied: “There are no planned mergers. An independent review is being carried out by Lord Hogan-Howe. That review will advise the Government on the right number of regional forces to have. 

“This is part of our plan to change policing so that we have a national police service, regional forces and local police areas that are able to police their local communities. Those are the proposals that have been announced. 

“When Lord Hogan-Howe’s review reports, I am sure we will be able to debate what he proposes for regional forces, but I can reassure the honourable member that local police areas will be a key part of the reforms as they are rolled out and will deal with exactly the problems that he has raised.”