“My colleagues don’t want plaudits and platitudes, they want fair pay and pensions.”
Chairman Jamie Thompson reacts to Home Secretary Priti Patel’s speech to the Police Federation of England and Wales Conference.
Jamie said: “The kind words from the Home Secretary won’t pay the mortgages of some of our members who are facing a pay freeze this year. Telling us she ‘has our back’ won’t return the pensions taken from some of our officers.
“The question around vaccines was dodged and blame shifted elsewhere, but it is an issue that still needs to be debated. A number of my members are currently in Cornwall, policing the G7 with colleagues from around the country. Yet many who are there remain unvaccinated due to the governments failure to recognise the unique nature of the role we do”
Jamie added: “Is there ‘top cover’ from our Government? Sadly I am yet to see the fruits of that promise. We still have an Independent Office for Police Conduct that are dangerously unregulated, we are facing a pay freeze, which in real terms is a pay cut and when we asked for support around vaccinations we were abandoned.
“We’ve heard a Home Secretary tell us that she would back us and support us previously. That was Theresa May back in 2010. We all still bear the scars of that.”
See Priti Patel’s full speech to the PFEW Conference here https://www.gov.uk/…/home-secretary-at-the-police…
