30/05/2017 London News

The Mayor of London claims up to half of the Met's police stations

Sadiq Khan says conservative cuts of ?400 million over the next three

years will make it 'extremely difficult' to keep them open.

But the Conservatives say they'll protect police funding.

Here's our political editor Tim Donovan.

Bobbies or buildings, what if that is the choice now,

Can't we have the police stations and the bobbies?

What would happen if you had to choose?

I would rather have the bobbies on the street.

Just working out of fewer police stations maybe?

Well, it doesn't really work, does it?

People need face-to-face interaction and customer service,

I do not want to see a lot of buildings close.

If they do decide to cut buildings, we require a lot of police officers,

More than 60 front office counters have closed in recent years,

the shutters come down on stations like this one in Rotherhithe.

More than 70 are left, like West End Central here but half

now appear under threat, according to the Mayor.

We have been working closely with the Met Police service

The choice is cutting front-line police officers -

nobody wants to do that - or having to close half of

I have been witness to the devastating effects of police

cuts during your time as Home Secretary.

Theresa May was challenged last night over policing,

but the Tories have said the Mayor is just scaremongering

and that there is enough money to go around.

What actually has happened here in the Metropolitan Police

is that there has been a rethink about how best you can deploy

the policing resources you have got to make theM most effective,

get them on the front line, get the back office stuff done

by people who are not actually going on to the front line,

and what I would say to you is that I think with falling crime,

and there has been falling crime in all those years,

the Met Police is probably now more efficient and effective than it

And as well as lobbying the government for more, has

When it came to the Budget this year, the Mayor took ?30 million out

of policing that would have funded and got us up to 32,000 police

officers on our streets in London, and he also put 20 million

into reserve, so if he is serious about keeping London safe,

he should put as much money as he could into policing,

as well as then made the case to government.

Limited money, what is best for the public?

Difficult decisions to be made in the coming years.

Well, policing is just one of the major election issues

which features in a BBC London debate to be aired tonight.

Our political correspondent Karl Mercer was there

Good evening, here we are with a panel of leading

100 Londoners, five top politicians and a presenter and a heated debate.

London was the only region in the country to vote Remain

One questioner is worried about what will happen now.

What will your party do to assure London's interests

are being considered in the upcoming Brexit negotiations?

There are different ways of leaving the European Union.

You can do it in the hard extreme way this government has chosen.

We didn't have to leave the single market, we don't have

to leave the customs union, we do not have to break up

the collaborative relationships around research which will happen

If you stay in the single market and you stay in the customs union,

You still have freedom of movement, you still have EU laws

and you cannot do trade deals with other countries.

It is no good for the country if we spend the whole of next year

We have to bring the country together and get

There are over a million EU nationals living in this

country, living in London, and the Labour Party does not

believe we should use them as bargaining chips

We say that we will secure their position.

I don't think people are stupid, they were told very clearly it

would mean leaving the single market, it means an end to free

movement, that is the reason people mostly voted for the country.

I admit in London it was 60% that there were 40% of Londoners

The negotiations are going to be really, really intricate,

and yet every time you raise what are we going to do about EU

nationals, what are we going to do about science funding,

you say that to somebody who is Leave and all they do

We need to be talking much more the details.

Their details which will be much chewed over in the coming days.

We've heard about policing and housing, what other

We only have nine days left in the debate. There were really engaged

Londoners in the audience. They want to know a lot of details, things

like terror and policing, particularly in the wake of the

Manchester attack, Londoners asking how will you keep us safe? Lots of

talk over police numbers. And another key issue, housing for

London. One young Londoner is saying how on earth will I get a house. I'm

25 years old, I have a decent job, I do not think I will ever get one.

And then the key issue of social care that has been talked about. One

mother and son say how will we survive, how will we keep our house

and our inheritance? Big questions for

a lot of Londoners. We saw a lot of feisty debate, quite punchy. A story

of U-turns, broken promises and some frustration. That is what we call

politics. And you can watch the debate

here on BBC One at 10.45pm, Detectives are hunting

for two boys on bikes, who fired into a crowd of people,

killing 20-year-old Mohanna Abdhou -

known as Montana - was with a group of friends

near a playground Police say a number of shots

were aimed at the group We are looking at all options

in terms of what is the reason There is nothing we have

identified in terms of Mohanna and her background to suggest

she would be a target for such an attack, so we we have an open

mind in terms of what the reason behind it is and our enquiries

are progressing in relation Prince Harry said they were created

to 'inspire and to heal'. The Invictus Games sees

service men and women, who've suffered life-changing

injuries compete Today he was at the launch

of the 2017 UK Team who'll be Emma Jones reports from

the Tower of London. Smiles and jokes with Prince Harry

as the United Kingdom team for this year's Invictus Games is unveiled

at the Tower of London. It's a cause close to Harry's heart

- he created the Games for injured and sick servicemen and women,

saying he wanted to demonstrate the power of sport to inspire

recovery and show there This is just part of what he had to

say at last year's Games in Orlando. You are now ambassadors

for the spirit of these Games. Spread the word, never stop fighting

and do all you can to lift up Since the first Invictus Games

were put on in London in 2014, The UK will be taking 90 competitors

to Toronto in September When I was first in the chair,

I was in a very, very bad place. I found basketball to start

with and after that I found wheelchair racing and it has

helped me immensely, concentrating on something and keeping me

on the straight and narrow. The athletes I've spoken to today

talked about the self-confidence and self-worth they have gained

from being part of this They also talked about the real

pride of being part of a team To see so many of the guys

I went to rehabilitation with here at the top of their game,

loud and confident, that is what the Games are about,

bringing people out of their shells. Some horrendous injuries

but now they can compete. For these competitors,

it is as much about taking part as much as it is bringing home

a medal from Toronto. This is a positive time in what has

been a challenging journey. I'll say goodnight now

and leave you with Wendy for a check on the weather,

which is warming up again? Yes, you have heard right. Mid 20s

by the end of the week. It is feeling a bit warmer tomorrow.

The cloud will be fairly well broken tomorrow. That will make it feel

warmer. This evening we have quite a lot of clear skies. There will be

patchy cloud and clear skies. The winds falling like. The temperature

settling around 14 degrees around dawn. Tomorrow, no trouble with the

commute to work. There may be one or two light showers through the

afternoon. They will be really well scattered. The temperature in London

reaching 23 degrees. Even warmer than that on Thursday and here is

why. There is a big area of low pressure out in the Atlantic. It

will be drawing in lots of warm air from the south. This weather front

will be tricky. It will introduce some heavy, thundery showers on

Friday. It might hang around into the weekend as well. For Thursday

you can see the sort of temperatures we are talking about. Mid 20s again.

We do have to watch out for some heavy thundery downpours. We will

keep you posted on that. There should be slightly fresher weekend

but still with some dry and sunny where

but still with some dry and sunny where that from time to time. Next

up, Darren Bett with National forecast.

Hello, it was a better day today. Clearer skies have pushed their way

across the receipt into Blackpool