Fed officials welcome meeting with Coventry MP

18 October 2024

Mary Creagh MP.

Coventry East MP Mary Creagh has met with officials from West Midlands Police Federation to discuss their current concerns.

The Labour MP, who is under-secretary of state at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, listened to their concerns and offered advice on how they could further their campaigns.

“We are grateful to Mary for taking the time to meet with us,” says Tim Rogers, secretary of West Midlands Police Federation.

Contacts

“Mary was supportive of our campaign for an appropriate police pay review mechanism, giving us some options re the legislative vehicle needed that we may use and also provided some useful contacts who are working on the Employment Rights Act.”

The meeting came about after the Federation wrote to all the MPs elected for the West Midlands region within weeks of the July General Election asking to meet with them.

But the Federation has been frustrated that only a handful have responded.

“So far, we have only managed to meet with two of them, which is hugely disappointing. Time and time again members of the public will say that law and order are important to them and yet their elected representatives in Parliament don’t seem to see policing as a priority,” says Tim.

“As a Federation, we are the voice of West Midlands Police’s constables, sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors, as well as members of the Special Constabulary.

“Policing is in crisis. We are campaigning for industrial rights, including collective bargaining, as our members are completely disillusioned with our current pay review body which is neither fair nor independent.

Hard-working

“We are also struggling to retain officers and that is having an impact on the quality of the policing service we can provide.”

Branch chair Rich Cooke added: “We want to talk to our MPs about our concerns and the ideas we have for addressing them, but we also want to hear what they have to say, and what support they can offer to the hard-working officers who day in, day out, put their lives on the line as they seek to serve and protect the public.

“We have now written to our MPs three times and while a few more have come back to us to try to arrange a meeting the vast majority have not even bothered to acknowledge our emails, which I think is very poor to say the least.”