BUSH VISIT COSTS COULD PAY FOR 150 NEW POLICE FOR LONDON

12.00.00pm GMT Tue 9th Dec 2003

Commenting on the announcement by Met Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens that the State visit by President Bush cost £4,142,539 while street robberies in that period leapt by 20% in London, 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.

Simon Hughes said:-

"The Bush visit meant London was hit by a triple whammy of massive disruption, extra costs and higher crime.

"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 left the other 7 million citizens in the capital with fewer officers and a higher cost.

"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 saw 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 150 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 £4.1 million estimated costs for the Bush visit that would pay for 149 officers. With 33 Boroughs this would give each Borough at least 4 new officers for a year.