BUSH VISIT COSTS COULD PAY FOR SIX NEW POLICE FOR EVERY LONDON BOROUGH

12.00.00am GMT Tue 18th Nov 2003

Liberal Democrat Mayoral candidate Simon Hughes today renewed calls for the expense of the George Bush visit to be met by national taxpayers rather than London as he revealed that the £5.5million bill could pay for six new police officers for every London Borough for a year.

Simon Hughes said:-

"State visits must be the responsibility of the state and paid for by all of the British taxpayers. It is unreasonable to ask the Met Police to spend such huge amounts of their budget for one man, when it leaves the other 7 million citizens in the capital with fewer officers and a higher bill.

"Ministers should make the decision to offset the costs of any state visit away from London. Given that the visit by Mr Bush is meant to be for the whole nation, then it should be the whole nation that pays for it and not just Londoners.

"The capital will see massive disruption to business, commuters, residents and tourists. It seems unreasonable to then expect the capital to then foot the costs of the security operations when it could pay for an extra 200 officers across London."

ENDS

Basic pay for a new police officer is set in the capital at £27,681 who would undertake duties such as going on the beat. With £5.5 million estimated costs for the Bush visit that would pay for 198 officers. With 33 Boroughs this would give each Borough six new officers.