A former senior metropolitan police officer has accused the government of ‘lying’ about the number of armed officers on the streets.
Peter Kirkham, a former investigating officer in London, said the Police were in "crisis" due to cuts in officer numbers, and that numbers would only reach levels seen in 2010 by the end of the decade.
Appearing on the BBC's Andrew Marr show last week, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “By the end of this year there will be as many armed police as there have ever been.”
In 2010, there were 6,976 armed officers in England and Wales. By 2014 that had been reduced to 5,875 - a decrease of 15% according to Home Office figures.
Mr Kirkham told Sky News: "The police service is in crisis as a result of the cuts. They’re being dragged from pillar to post. We hear talk of extra police officers on the street. They’re not extra, they’re officers that have had their rare leave days cancelled, they’ve had their 12 hour shifts that are now done routinely extended into 16 hours."
"They’re being drawn from other areas, the officers you see behind us are from Hounslow and Hillingdon. They’re not extra officers at all. They’re from other duties and they’re being burned out."
Asked about government claims armed police numbers were set to be the highest on record, Mr Kirkham said: "No. No. They’re not. Basically, people who are alleging that are lying.
"They’ve funded bringing us back to the number of armed officers we had in 2010 by 2020. And they’ve got to address a number of issues in order to get there."
The Home Office confirmed the number of armed police is set to increase by more than 1,000 - but that’s over the next two years.
They expect to publish armed police officer numbers for 2017 in July.