Home Secretary Amber Rudd says police cuts have played no part in the surge in street killings

The Home Secretary has clashed with a former police chief by insisting the loss of thousands of officers has played no part in the surge in street killings.

Amber Rudd said the “evidence” disproved the criticism that harsh police cuts have left forces without the resources to curb the rise in stabbings and shootings.

The charge has been led by Ian Blair, the former Scotland Yard Commissioner, who said London was paying the price for the undermining of intelligence-led neighbourhood policing – with not enough officers “visible on the street”.

But Ms Rudd, writing in The Sunday Telegraph, ahead of unveiling a Serious Violence Task Force to tackle the problem, said the “time for warm words and political quarrels is over”.

“As we confront this issue, I know that the same arguments and criticisms will emerge,” she wrote.

"One is the contention that there are not enough officers on the streets. The evidence, however, does not support this. In the early 2000s, when serious violent crimes were at their highest, police numbers were rising.

“In 2008, when knife crime was far greater than the lows we saw in 2013-14, police numbers were close to the highest we'd seen in decades.”

Ms Rudd also highlighted rising police budgets and cash reserves held by most forces - including the Metropolitan Police, which has £240m to spend if it believes there is a need.

The article follows six shootings and stabbings in London in the past week alone and more than 50 murders in the capital in just the first three months of the year.

Labour has also linked the deaths directly to “funding cuts of £1bn” to the Metropolitan Police, alleged that “probation and prisons are in chaos” and that youth services had been “cut to the bone”.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, accused Ms Rudd of having her “head in the sand” over the impact of stripping out huge numbers of police officers.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme, she described the rash of killings as ‘devastating”, saying: “We have seen knife crime increasing in the 39 of 43 police forces across the UK.

“It’s not just about austerity, but when the Home Secretary sticks her head in the sand and says that losing 21,000 police off our streets doesn’t have an effect, then I think that’s a very naïve position.”

Ms Rayner said there had also been steep cuts to “wraparound services” for young people, adding: “That has a knock-on effect. It’s not just about the police, of course it’s not, but it’s about the wider public services and about supporting families to make the right choices.”

Under the new serious violence strategy, anyone buying a knife online will be banned from having it sent to a residential address, under a government crackdown following a surge in street stabbings.

New legislation, to be brought forward within weeks, will also make it illegal to possess zombie knives and knuckledusters in private – or any knife on further education premises.

Rapid firing rifles will be banned and the legal definition for threatening someone with an offensive weapon changed to make prosecutions easier.