A policewoman who is recovering from being shot by a burglar appealed to the Government yesterday to reinstate the full police pay award.

Rachael Bown, 24, compared the “lack of respect” displayed by ministers in refusing to pay a 2.5 per cent pay deal to that shown by the man who shot her in February last year.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, refused to backdate the pay settlement, agreed by an arbitration board. Her decision has in effect cut the award to 1.9 per cent.

Anger among officers grew yesterday when police staff, custody officers and forensic science technicians, were awarded the full 2.5 per cent pay rise by the Home Office.

Jan Berry, chairwoman of the Police Federation, told MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee that the award to police staff would “do nothing to suppress the anger and discontent of police officers who have been betrayed by this Government”.

An e-mail from PC Bown was read to the MPs by her boss, Steve Green, the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire. Mr Green said that she was one of more than 400 officers who had e-mailed him after he told them he would be speaking to the committee.

PC Bown was shot in the stomach as she tried to stop a man near the scene of a break-in in Nottingham. The bullet hit her just below her body armour.

“I would like to see the Government acknowledge the personal sacrifice made by officers and their families,” PC Bown wrote. “By awarding the full pay rise as agreed, they will show their support for the police. They need to lead by example. As is shown in my case, there is a lack of respect for the police in this country; the Government are leading this lack of respect.”

Mr Green said that the decision on the pay award had come as “a body blow” to his officers. He added: “There are opportunities for the Government to say, ‘We made a mistake here and we need to put it right’.”

He said that he had the money in his budget to meet the pay rise in full and wanted to reward his officers for improving the force’s performance. Ms Smith’s decision would save him £600,000 but the money would be “stashed in the reserves”.

Ms Berry told the committee that rank-and-file officers would be balloted on whether they wanted the right to strike early in the new year. She said that she was not in favour of officers taking industrial action but could understand it “if you back them into a corner”.

In a letter to Ms Smith, the committee said that the decision not to meet the pay rise in full was damaging to police morale and recruitment. Keith Vaz, the chairman, wrote: “We do not accept that the police are in the same position as other public service workers in that they do not have the ability to withdraw their labour in pursuit of any pay claim. We feel that it is incumbent on the Government to honour the recommendations of the independent tribunal. This is a question of trust.”

Trevon Thomas, 25, an illegal immigrant, was convicted a year ago of attempting to murder PC Bown. He was arrested on an aircraft at Heathrow as he tried to leave the country.

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