SHADOW Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said she shares the concerns of the Wiltshire Chief Constable over cuts to the police.

The MP was in Swindon last week at an event on immigration organised by Labour’s South Swindon Candidate Anne Snelgrove, but also spoke about how the party would bring about savings within the police force.

The visit came as Chief Constable Pat Geenty said cuts to the budget meant all options would have to be explored to find savings.

Mrs Cooper said it would be Labour’s policy to ensure police forces worked more closely together and did not rule out a merger of forces, similar to Wiltshire and Dorset Fire Services.

She said: “I think the Wiltshire Chief Constable is absolutely right to be deeply concerned about the scale of cuts for policing over the next few years.

“Why have we still got Police and Crime Commissioners in place when we should be putting that money into frontline policing instead?

“Labour would find £50m from cutting PCCs and put that into frontline services. We would also require police forces to work together on things like the procurement of contracts and that would save up to £400m.

“Force mergers is for local areas to decide. What they certainly need to do is work better together with the way in which they procure contracts.

“What we’ve said is Labour would make sure local forces have enough money to stop the 1,000 police officers that are planned to be cut next year.

“I think at a time when you’ve got concerns about counter terror, concerns about complex crimes like child abuse and domestic violence, now is not the time to be having a huge round of cuts to police officers. What we should be doing is supporting local forces and local communities.”

Angus Macpherson, the Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner, has said he wants to see closer work between forces to cut costs but is confident a high quality police service can be maintained.

He is speaking to residents about raising the police portion of council tax in an attempt to offset the reduction in government funding.

“We know that we have to make further significant savings and we will seek to achieve those savings from the policing services that are funded centrally by the Government and delivered regionally,” he said.

“As public sector budgets continue to be cut, the aim is to work more effectively together to both improve customer service and reduce costs.”