Police chiefs leader Sir Hugh Orde and acting Met Commissioner Tim Godwin were livid with the PM and Home Secretary Theresa May for saying THEY ordered the crackdown on thugs.
Mr Cameron was in Manchester and Salford yesterday visiting police who tackled rioting but he still refused to reconsider his plans to cut 16,000 officers over the next four years.
Angry Sir Hugh, the head of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said the politicians had made no difference to the police operation to end the mayhem on Britain’s streets.
He said: “That politicians chose to come back is an irrelevance in terms of the tactics that were by then developing.”
Police are appalled at the way the Government has tried to take credit for tackling the disorder after officers worked round the clock and put themselves at huge personal risk to take on the thugs.
Mrs May has claimed she ordered the “robust approach” and cancelled all leave but Sir Hugh said last night that she has “no power whatsoever” to do that.
Mr Godwin also played down the Home Secretary’s involvement in the policing operation.
He said: “What I can say is that I have some of the best commanders in the world... they showed great restraint as well as great courage.
“As a result of that we were able to nip this in the bud after a few days.
“The issue around the numbers, the tactics – they are all police decisions and they are all made by my police commanders and myself.”
Police are already at loggerheads with the ministers over cuts plans and Sir Hugh pointed out that fewer officers would make more difficult to maintain public safety.
He said: “We need to have very honest conversations with the Government about what we are to stop doing if we are to maintain front-line service delivery at current levels.”
Mr Cameron, who came under fire for not returning from a holiday in Tuscany immediately when the riots began, praised local officers – but refused any suggestion of going back on police cuts plans when speaking to reporters.
He said: “I pay tribute to the incredible bravery of the officers involved. The bravest of the brave. It is an incredibly difficult thing we ask the police to do.”
Mr Cameron said there was a real sense of anger among law-abiding people who were left “sickened” by the rioting but the “swift justice” being handed out by the courts was a silver lining to the troubles.
He said: “I have been impressed that there have been some quite exemplary sentences.
“I saw one newspaper this morning complaining that someone had stolen some water bottles and got six months in prison. I have to say, I was cheering. Swift justice is good justice.”
In a Lidl supermarket which was looted of £200,000 stock and then torched, he shook his head and said “unbelievable”.
Firefighters had raced to the store but had to withdraw after coming under attack from the mob.
SPINNING
Police Federation vice chairman Simon Reed said the Government’s efforts to take credit for quelling the riots were “a slight on the professionalism of the police service”.
Shadow Minister for Policing Vernon Coaker added: “Instead of the Prime Minister and Home Secretary spinning the police they should be supporting them.
“It is incredible that this government is hell-bent even now in cutting over 16,000 police officers at the very time that they are needed more than ever.”
3SOME 71% of people oppose the Government’s plan to cut the number of frontline police, a ComRes poll reveals today. It found 54% believed David Cameron had failed to show “necessary leadership” in the rioting while just 36% had confidence in his ability.
RIOTS
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