Suella Braverman was accused of repeatedly dodging the question this morning as she clashed with Susanna Reid and Ed Balls on Good Morning Britain.
The home secretary repeatedly refused to admit that police numbers were slashed by 20,000 under the Tory government’s austerity programme after the party came to power in 2010.
Braverman was grilled by the pair as the Home Office prepares to announce that it has hit its target of recruiting an extra 20,000 officers.
She rejected claims that the government was simply “filling a gap” that it had caused itself by slashing police numbers.
Susanna Reid asked her: “Do you acknowledge that under your government 20,000 police officers were cut?”
Braverman replied: “Again, I’ve repeated myself twice already but I’ll say it again ...
But a clearly-frustrated Reid interrupted her to say: “I know, because you’re not answering the question. My question was do you acknowledge that 20,000 police officers were cut?”
Ed Balls then interjected: “Isn’t the answer just ‘yes’, home secretary?”
But Braverman replied: “If we meet our target, and we’re confident we’re going to, we will have surpassed any number that was on the books even prior to 2010, so that represents a record number.”
She added that police numbers prior to the 2019 election were “an irrelevance”.
But Reid said: “That’s so interesting. So you think it’s irrelevant what the police numbers were like in 2017. You don’t think that if the police forces were down by 20,000 officers that might have affected how they tackle crime?”
As the clash became more heated, the home secretary said: “Listen, we came into power in 2010 inheriting a financial crisis and no money was left by the Labour government. We had to make difficult choices.”
Reid replied: “It’s not irrelevant then to cut 20,000 police officers, is it?”
Braverman hit back: “We had to make incredibly difficult choices on a range of public sector spending decisions and those did affect policing.”
Reid responded: “So you do acknowledge that 20,000 police officers were cut under your government?”
But Braverman said: “What I do acknowledge is that if we reach our target we would have surpassed any number that’s been in our police force ever and I think that’s a huge achievement on the part of policing, a huge achievement on the part of this Conservative government.”
As the row continued, Reid said: “So more police officers is good, but you acknowledge that you did cut 20,000 during the course of this government?”
But Braverman said: “I think that’s the fourth time you’ve asked the question, Susanna. The issue is we inherited an unprecedented financial disaster in 2010 caused by the previous Labour administration.”
Balls, a former Labour shadow chancellor, then said: “With respect, home secretary, the reason why Susanna asked you the question four times is because four times you refused to answer it and the truth is that the numbers went down by 20,000 and you’re now seeking to get them back up again by 20,000 to slightly more than they were in 2010.
“Those are the facts, it just seems better that we acknowledge that.”