Police berate Home Secretary over pay 'betrayal' and cannabis admission

The Home Secretary sat stony faced as Police Federation chairman Jan Berry said her handling of the pay deal was a matter "more for the Serious Fraud Office than the drug squad".

Mrs Berry said Miss Smith's actions on police pay had destroyed their trust in her.

The Home Secretary had arrived at the Federation's annual conference offering a seemingly generous pensions sweetener.

But Mrs Berry said officers "would not be fooled" as it became clear that a boost in retirement lump sums would be paid for by a cut in monthly payments for retired officers.

At the conference in Bournemouth, Miss Smith promised to abide by an imminent High Court judgment on whether she acted unlawfully when she backdated an agreed 2.5 per cent pay rise to December instead of September, making it only worth 1.9 per cent over the year.

But she later signalled that she may appeal if senior judges rule against her.

Earlier this week the federation, representing 140,000 rank-and-file officers, announced plans to lobby for the right to take strike action.

Yesterday Mrs Berry condemned Miss Smith's decision not to implement the full pay rise as a "monumental mistake", telling her: "I do not say this lightly when I say you betrayed the police service."

The Home Secretary looked increasingly uncomfortable as Mrs Berry took a swipe at her self-confessed use of cannabis as a student, asking whether she had "lit up to
calm her nerves" before appearing at the conference.

"Your recent crimes have been more for the Serious Fraud Office than the drug squad," she added.

Pointing out that Education Secretary Ed Balls had stuck to an independent pay recommendation for Britain's teachers, Mrs Berry asked: "Home Secretary, what is it that Mr Balls has but you do not?

"How was it that the Government found £2.7billion to dig itself out of a tax hole in advance of a by-election but couldn't find £30million to honour our pay deal?" Mrs Berry lamented the erosion of traditional police values by a target culture and red tape, adding: "We have lost the morality of successful policing."

She challenged Miss Smith to convert the 16,000 civilian community support officers in England and Wales into real police by training them fully.

Miss Smith was unapologetic over police pay, insisting she was guided by "affordability" and the need to curb inflation through public-sector pay.

She hinted that a higher pay rise would have led to job cuts, saying: "I need to ensure that you continue to have your colleagues working alongside you  -  all your colleagues."

The Home Secretary dismissed the strike threat, saying: "Setting out on the road to the right to strike will only lead to a dead end."

The timing of her announcement on greater lump-sum pension payments was branded "distasteful" by Mrs Berry.

Longer life expectancy means the Treasury can save more by paying smaller pensions for more years, so lump sums will increase to reflect that fact  -  by around £20,000 for a typical constable.

In addition, the pension paid to widows or widowers of police officers who die on duty will no longer be halted if they later remarry, and those who lost out in the past are to benefit from discretionary lump sum payments.

Mrs Berry said: "The timing is not a coincidence. That is what is distasteful about it.

"This is money that is owed to officers anyway. It was long overdue and over the long term it's costneutral anyway. This is not going to fool police officers."