Cumbria Police Federation Chair vows to continue to highlight shocking attack on police pay and conditions

4 March 2022

The Chair of Cumbria Police Federation has vowed to continue to highlight the shocking attacks to police officer pay and conditions over the past 10 years - despite ruffling a local MP’s feathers. 

Earlier this week Federation Chair Paul Williams told the News & Star newspaper that his members were fuming about MPs getting a 2.7% pay rise when police officers had received nothing. 

All MPs will receive £2,212 more for the year from April 1, increasing their pay from £81,932 to £84,144. Meanwhile officers received a 0% pay rise last year and their pay has gone down by 20% in real terms over the past decade. 

Paul said that the MPs’ pay rise was a “sucker punch” for police officers, pointing out that there had been an "increase in assaults on emergency workers, increase in workload, increase in risk”, yet officers’ pay was stagnant.

In response, Mark Jenkinson, Conservative MP for Workington, said in the News & Star article: "If the Police Federation wish to make their views known directly to those that make the decision, rather than complaining to the press after those decisions have been made, I would be happy to feed their views to IPSA [Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority] if they write to me directly."

But Paul said he had approached Mr Jenkinson last year for a meeting about pay and was brushed off.

Paul said: “The national Federation has been making efforts with the Government to address the issues around the independence of pay reviews for some time now. Mr Jenkinson may recall I wrote to him, along with all other Cumbria MPs, in July 2021, requesting to meet with him and discuss our pay freeze. 

“I only received two responses, one of which was from Mr Jenkinson, who informed me I was not part of his constituency and therefore that was the end of the matter. I represent all officers of all constituencies so would have expected at least some engagement. 

“I am disappointed in the attitude of this response and the criticism that I am ‘complaining to the press’. I am doing what is expected of my members and voicing real and genuine concerns, and I will continue to do so.”