The Police Will Not Cope With Brexit Disorder: Former Met Chief

9 March 2019, 18:37

Police officers will not be able to cope with protests and other disorder after Brexit, a former Met chief claims.

Former Detective Chief Inspector Peter Kirkham said he did not believe the Metropolitan Police would be able to cope with Brexit disorder, after it was reported that the force placed restrictions on the amount of annual leave officers can take.

The force said that restrictions on leave would apply to "certain dates in March and April" to make sure there were "sufficient officers and staff" available to do deal with "any issues arising from the UK leaving the EU".

A leaked document from the National Police Co-ordination Centre warned that shortages of medicines and rising food prices could lead to "civil disorder" and "widespread protest" in the even of a no-deal Brexit.

But speaking to Ian Payne, Mr Kirkham said there were no extra officers to deal with any trouble.

"I fear there will [disorder] be regardless what happens, I suspect there will be some sort of protest around it," he said.

Mr Kirkham added: "Whatever happens, the police are not going to be able to cope with it because there are no extra officers, there is no bottomless-bobby-box.

"There's no officer sitting around doing things that nobody cares about, except writing reports for HMRC and for the government.

"The bottom line is, all that this is going to do now is demoralise and burn out officers even further.

We've got sickness through the roof with stress related sickness, health related retirements, people leaving early out of choice, and organisation is falling apart."