Police Grant Report

Michael Payne Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Michael Payne (Gedling) (Lab)]

I associate myself with the remarks of my right hon. Friend the Minister on the tragic loss of Harvey Willgoose, and extend my deepest condolences to his family. I also thank Chief Constable Kate Meynell and all her police officers and staff at Nottinghamshire police for the important and heroic work they do for the communities I represent in Gedling.

I would like to begin by paying tribute to a constituent, PC Chris Duffy, and his police dog, Reno. When attending an incident in March 2023, PC Duffy was struck on the back of the head by an attacker in an alleyway, leaving him with a seven-inch wound as he fell to the ground. Despite what had happened, he got himself back on his feet and 15 minutes later arrested his attacker. I was delighted, as his Member of Parliament and as a lifelong school friend, to see him recognised and nominated for a prestigious Pride of Gedling award last year. I pay tribute to PC Duffy and Reno for their heroic service.

Thanks to this Labour Government, residents in Gedling will be the beneficiaries of a much-needed funding increase for Nottinghamshire police. I welcome the Government’s announcement of a total £7.2 million boost in funding for Nottinghamshire police—a 6.1% increase—meaning more police on our streets in communities across Gedling and more resources for our brave police officers to clamp down on crime and antisocial behaviour.

The Government are working constructively and closely with our Labour police and crime commissioner, Gary Godden, who has been a tireless champion for Nottinghamshire police and our hard-working police officers across the county of Nottinghamshire. Himself an ex-copper, he understands first-hand the devastating impacts of crime and antisocial behaviour on communities like the ones I represent in Gedling. That is in stark contrast to the previous Conservative police and crime commissioner of Nottinghamshire, who spent more time defending her own speeding offences than tackling people offending by speeding on our roads.

As we saw under the last Conservative Government, when the number of police officers is cut, it is always the hard-working, law-abiding-majority who pay the price. I have seen that first-hand in Arnold, Carlton and Netherfield town centres, where lawless thugs have tried getting away with mindless antisocial behaviour.

My constituent John has been playing darts on a Wednesday evening in Arnold town centre for over 20 years. He recently told me about the gangs of young people smashing up bicycles outside a local supermarket at night. John said to me that it was getting worse “week by week” and that it was putting people off visiting the area in the town centre. In Carlton, my constituent Louise recently visited a local church to donate school uniforms. She was confronted with offensive graffiti daubed across the church walls, leading her children to ask her uncomfortable questions about what the vile vandalism meant—graffiti on the walls of one of our most beautiful churches.

And last week I met Sarah, who is a governor at Warren primary academy, a fantastic school in a wonderful community. Sarah and the headteacher at Warren primary told me how parents are afraid to let their kids play in Muirfield park due to weekly incidents of vandalism of public property, including the burning of park equipment, people carrying knives and

“off-road bikers ripping up the park, wearing full balaclavas”.

Think about that: parents afraid of letting their children play in parks because of some lawless thugs and vandals. That is totally unacceptable and must change. Local councillors, the community and I have been raising these issues with the police and crime commissioner in Nottinghamshire, as well as the Government. I hope that the new uplift in funding from the Labour Government for our local police is put to good use to increase neighbourhood policing and ensure that this kind of antisocial behaviour is stamped out.

On the Labour Benches, we believe that all crime should be prosecuted. We believe in the need to take tough action on criminals and those who are intent on attempting to intimidate the law-abiding majority. We believe in a zero-tolerance approach to the perpetrators of antisocial behaviour in places like Arnold, Netherfield, Carlton and Warren Hill; unlike the Conservatives, who effectively legalised shoplifting under the value of £200, slashed the number of police by 45,000 in their first four years in office and then expected us to thank them for promising the return of only 20,000. Police force numbers—to be clear to the shadow policing Minister—at the end of the last Conservative Government were still 2,000 lower than when Labour left office in 2010. At the same time, what did we see? We saw a rise in fraud, a rise in knife crime and the continued presence of antisocial behaviour.

It is this Labour Government who will increase the number of neighbourhood bobbies on the beat by 13,000, introduce a named police officer for every community and invest in youth hubs across our country so that we can tackle the root causes of antisocial behaviour. I will never, ever apologise for a zero-tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour: it is what my constituents in Gedling expect, and I am delighted that this Labour Government are working with our police and crime commissioner, Nottinghamshire police, MPs and local councillors to stamp this out.