Welcoming the new Chair of Greater Manchester Police Federation Lee Broadbent

1 December 2021

The new Chair of Greater Manchester Police Federation says he’s looking forward to meeting as many Federation members as possible so he can make their voices heard with chief officers.

Lee Broadbent, who takes over the role today (1 December), has worked in frontline policing for 15 years.

He said: “I look forward to meeting as many officers as I can over the next three years. One of the key things I want to do is to be out in every division, so I can understand what’s going on across the force. 

“Even though I won’t be working full-time uniformed shifts any more, I will be dropping in on shifts and doing the work. I will be keeping my hand in directly on the front line, because that’s where I will get my legitimacy from, to speak to chief officers and tell them where it’s going wrong. 

“There needs to be a direct link between the frontline as a PC all the way up to the Chief Constable of the organisation. That’s vastly important.” 

Lee - who has been one of the leaders of the “Pension Challenge” said he “relished the challenge” of becoming Federation Chair, especially at what he described as a difficult time for Greater Manchester Police officers. 

He vowed to be more proactive in his media commentary and messaging around the good work of officers and the challenges they face.

Lee continued: “With the constant negative onslaught of the media, everything that goes on seems to be the police’s fault. That has had a negative impact on officers’ morale, because they feel like nobody’s shouting or fighting for their corner.

“In GMP we’re in special measures, we’ve got a new Chief Constable, there's a huge change programme going on, and officers are demoralised and under pressure.

“We have a lot of good reps who do an amazing job, but there needs to be more openness, more balance, and we need to fight for cops, who do an incredibly difficult job.”