Rory Stewart Wants To Reopen Police Stations In Abandoned Buildings

5 November 2019, 11:18 | Updated: 5 November 2019, 11:27

London Mayoral candidate Rory Stewart suggested reopening police stations - citing an abandoned one in Oval as an example.

At the start of the interview, Rory Stewart told Nick Ferrari that he wanted to reopen police stations and to increase the number of neighbourhood police as the proportion of the Met as a whole.

Nick asked Stewart where he would put the police stations.

Stewart replied that there's an empty police station in Oval, being squatted in, which could be used again.

He explained: "There's nobody in it at the moment, you can move back into these buildings. There's no use for it.

That's currently actually being used for people to squat. No use at all is being given to those buildings."

He added: "We need to bring more officers in but it's not just about more officers. This is something I also learned as Prisons Minister."

Nick asked him what the strength of Met Police staffing was at the moment.

Stewart replied: "You're hitting me there, Nick, with a figure I don't have at my fingertips but the 20,000 extra officers, which are being brought back, is the exact number that was removed."

Nick pointed out that London would not get all 20,000 and told him that the current number is 30,737 police officers.

Stewart said "very good".

Nick replied: "Well, that's my job."

Nick then asked: "What's the Met Police budget?"

Stewart, stumped, said: "Nick, you give me the budget. I don't have that budget."

Nick said: "You didn't have the ULEZ figures, you don't have the staff of the police, you didn't have the budget of the police."

Rory guessed that it was approximately £1bn.

Nick corrected him, it's £3bn.