Luton’s Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader has slammed the Labour Police Authority spokesperson and the town’s two Labour MPs for failing to fight for adequate funding for Bedfordshire Police.

David Franks is furious that a £3.8M shortfall which Councillor Farooq told a recent Council meeting would be returned to Bedfordshire has failed to appear. Yet no Luton MP spoke in the Parliamentary debate on the issue on Monday, and Kelvin Hopkins voted for the settlement.

At a recent Council meeting Cllr Mohammad Farooq announced that his lobbying for a return of the missing £3.8M had paid off AND the money was on its way. He promised to write confirming when it would arrive.

Despite Cllr. Farooq’s confirmation that the money was coming, it has failed to appear leaving the Police still underfunded by £3.8M.

Councillor David Franks says: “Now we can see just how committed Luton Labour politicians are to giving our Police the money they need to do the job. Their spokesperson on the Police Authority, Councillor Farooq, told us the money was coming back when it clearly wasn’t, and neither MP has had the bottle to stand up for fair funding for Luton’s Police.”