The Home Secretary is facing a growing revolt among chief constables and from within the Government’s own ranks over her decision to renege on an agreed police pay deal.

Mike Fuller, the Chief Constable of Kent, told The Times that he was among a number of senior officers who have written to Jacqui Smith expressing deep concern at the damage to officers’ trust, morale and goodwill.

Mr Fuller said chief officers were increasingly anxious that mounting anger in their forces might lead to unofficial militant protests.

Keith Vaz, a former Labour minister, claimed that disquiet in the party had led to ten ministers going to see Ms Smith and to Tony McNulty, the Police Minister, being surrounded by concerned backbenchers in the Commons tea room.

Gordon Brown is expected to be tackled on the issue today at his weekly private meeting with the parliamentary committee of senior Labour MPs.

As that meeting takes place, 1,000 rank-and-file delegates will be attending an emergency Police Federation conference that is expected to trigger a ballot of 140,000 officers on the right to strike. Police officers are barred by the 1996 Police Act from taking industrial action.

With the dispute intensifying, one Home Office source said: “I can’t understand the politics of this. Is it worth the trouble of a row with the police?”

But there was no sign last night that Ms Smith would yield on her decision to cut the pay rise, set by an independent arbitration tribunal, from 2.5 per cent to 1.9 per cent by refusing to backdate it to September.

She held brief talks with Jan Berry, chairman of the Police Federation, but they reached no resolution.

Ms Smith sought to counter growing sympathy for the police by writing to MPs, saying that the police had done well from pay rises over the past decade. Starting pay had risen by 39 per cent since 1997 – 9 per cent above inflation – and recruitment and retention levels were among the best in the public sector.

Mr Fuller said he had been shocked by the Home Secretary’s decision not to meet the full pay rise. It was an unnecessary step, he said, because police authorities and chief constables had budgeted for the full 2.5 per cent.

He said: “We are anxious because so much of policing depends on goodwill. We cannot compel officers to carry firearms, we cannot compel them to guard Home Office prisoners and we cannot compel them to take part in hostage negotiations. These are some of the most important roles in policing and they require officers to volunteer.

“That goodwill has been severely damaged and that is going to make my job as chief constable a lot harder. My greatest concern is that we will end up with demoralised and demoti-vated officers who feel that, more important than the money, there has been a breach of principle and trust.”

Mr Fuller’s views were echoed by Ken Jones, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers. He said that the pay decision could damage recruitment in forces around London because the Metropolitan Police paid more.

He told the Home Affairs Select Committee: “I feel we are not giving sufficient weight to the fact that cops don’t enjoy the ordinary rights of other workers in terms of industrial action. I would not underestimate the tensions and feelings people have in terms of feeling let down. Cops are pretty exercised and angry over this.”

Ms Smith had earlier faced hostile questions about the pay issue from members of the same committee.

Martin Salter, her former parliamentary private secretary, said that her decision not to backdate the award “breached the covenant between the police and those who pay their wages”. He added: “You should tell the Treasury to back off.”

The Prime Minister, with Labour performing poorly in opinion polls, will want to avoid a bruising row with the police. But a defiant Ms Smith told MPs that only junior doctors and the Armed Forces had received a more generous pay settlement this year and that the £30 million involved was the equivalent of an extra 800 officers.

Ms Smith said: “I don’t underestimate their concern about this pay award but I don’t believe, from my experience of police officers, that they want to take the right to strike. I take seriously my responsibility to ensure that I put in place arrangements that are fair but also are affordable for the police service and the taxpayer.”

Starting pay for PCs

£18,264 2002

£19,227 2003

£19,803 2004

£20,397 2005

£21,009 2006

£21,428* 2007

Source: Times database Metropolitan Police officers receive additional £6,219 London weighting
*Estimate

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