Labour plans police e-petition push
Ed Miliband wants to force debate on government's proposed 20% cut to force's budget which could see loss of 16,000 officers
Ed Miliband plans to make the government's police cuts a central issue in the autumn by using the new e-petitions process to push the government into a U-turn on its plans.
A party source said the Labour leader aims to bring the issue to a head when parliament returns after the party conference season. Labour will draft its own petition in the next few weeks and post it on the government's e-petitions website.
If it manages to gather 100,000 signatories, it will mean that Labour's motion will be considered by the parliamentary backbench committee for a discussion in parliament.
Labour believes its proposed cuts of 12% to the police can be achieved without endangering numbers on the frontline, while government cuts of 20% will mean fewer police on the streets.
Speaking on a visit to Lewisham, south London, an area affected by the riots earlier this month, Miliband said: "No one will understand why the government is pressing ahead with their plans for 16,000 fewer police officers. And we're determined to force a vote in parliament on this issue, either through our opposition day or through the new mechanism of a petition which will force a vote."
The Labour leader's signal of intent came as David Cameron held his first meeting of the social policy review, launched in the wake of the riots.
In the aftermath of the disturbances, the prime minister announced that an internal review of every government policy would take place to ensure they were bold enough to fix a "broken society".
Ministers from the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Communities and Local Government are taking part in the review, which is expected to last until October.
One example of existing policies moulded to help the government deal with social policy after the riots was launched by the housing minister, Gra! nt Shapp s, on Tuesday. Shapps said tenants would be trained to take control of their neighbourhoods, post-riots. He said they would be trained to have the skills necessary to run local "tenant panels".
Shapps had originally launched the policy in June. This week he said the public clean-up in response to the recent riots showed that when communities came together to take a stand against those inflicting damage and disorder they could have an impact.
New powers in the localism bill propose to give tenants the opportunity to lead their local communities and be given a direct say on issues such as how repairs, antisocial behaviour and estate management could be better tackled by enabling tenant panels to consider complaints before referring them to the ombudsman.
On Tuesday, Shapps announced that The National Communities Resource Centre at Trafford Hall, Cheshire, a registered charity, had been awarded 535,000 to deliver this training.
It is expected to train at least 1,500 social tenants to sit on panels; deliver at least eight different training courses covering a range of subjects; give grants for up to 100 tenants to help them spread learning in their community and kick start local initiatives; and provide opportunities for interested tenants to work towards accredited qualifications, which could help them to new career paths.
Shapps said: "We saw during the recent riots that when communities come together to take a stand against those causing deliberate damage, real action results. For too long, when there's a problem in their area, they have been told to sit tight and wait until action is taken on their behalf.
"The new powers and skills that tenant panels will bring will instead allow them to take control of their area; putting them at the heart of proposing solutions, and no longer simply putting up with the problems.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said that Cameron's social policy review would look at whether curren! t govern ment plans and programmes are "big enough and bold enough to deliver the change the country now wants to see".
The meeting set out the process of the review, which will look at the wide range of issues around what the government calls the "broken society".
The spokeswoman added: "It looks at the whole set of issues regarding broken society it could be schools, family policy, parenting, communities, human rights, health and safety, cultural, legal, bureaucratic problems, services the government provides and how they are delivered, and the signals that government sends about the kind of behaviours that are encouraged and rewarded."
The internal review is separate from the independent panel on the riots set up by deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, which will look at the impact of the riots on communities. The makeup of the panel is still under discussion.
The review chaired by Cameron will also run in parallel with the review of gang culture led by Theresa May, the home secretary, and Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary.
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