PFEW conference: Badenoch pledges 10,000 extra officers as she warns policing cannot keep losing experience

22 October 2026

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has pledged to recruit 10,000 additional police officers, including 2,000 in crime hotspots.

However, Badenoch warned that policing cannot continue replacing experienced officers who leave because of mounting pressures and low morale.

Badenoch, who attended the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) Annual Conference and addressed delegates, said officers needed more frontline colleagues, less unnecessary paperwork and better support to do the job.

She also criticised the Labour Government for failing to send a representative to the PFEW conference for the second consecutive year.

 

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch addresses the PFEW conference

 

“I want you to know that I have your back,” she told delegates.

Badenoch said a Conservative Government would create 50,000 additional prison places, reduce administrative burdens on officers and use technology, including artificial intelligence and live facial recognition, to help investigations.

Badenoch told Conference the scale of the challenge was reflected in PFEW’s latest Pay and Morale Survey findings.

She said the results showed that more than half of officers reported low morale and nearly a quarter intended to resign within two years or as soon as possible.

Realities of the job

“We need to recruit the right people and prepare them for the realities of the job,” she said. “Recruitment is only part of the answer. We also need to make sure that once we have good officers, we keep them.

“Policing used to be a career that people loved, but I know many former police officers who didn't feel that way by the end.

“You cannot just keep recruiting new officers to replace the good ones who have left.

“That is no way to run a police service. This should be a job people love. We want you to love your job, and we are going to make it a job that you love again.”

Change officer investigations

Badenoch said she wanted to change the way police officers are investigated after making difficult decisions on duty.

She said lengthy investigations can leave officers facing years of uncertainty and damage their careers, even when they acted lawfully.

She said officers needed confidence their decisions would be judged fairly, while stressing proper accountability must remain in place when wrongdoing occurs.

“Policing has never been an easy job, and I know in recent years your job has been made even harder,” she said, adding, “In dangerous situations that most of us will never have to experience, we have to be able to trust that those decisions will be judged fairly.”

Reduce admin work

Badenoch also pledged to reduce the time officers spend on administrative work, including by making disclosure requirements more proportionate, automating admin tasks and expanding the use of AI and live facial recognition to help identify suspects more quickly.

She said: “Every hour lost to paperwork is an hour you don’t spend catching criminals.

“Recording evidence is important but spending hours filling in unnecessary forms is not good policing.

“It’s a waste of your time and it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money.

“So we are going to make disclosure more proportionate.”

Expanding prison capacity

The Conservative leader said expanding prison capacity would also help ensure offenders faced meaningful consequences and reduce the repeated demands placed on officers dealing with the same individuals.

On police pay, Badenoch said she could not promise an immediate increase without explaining how it would be funded.

She said improving the economy would be necessary to make higher pay rises affordable, while pointing to other proposed policies, including abolishing stamp duty and extending free childcare, which she said could benefit officers and their families.

Read more: PFEW conference - day one round up.