Mayors revolt as UK police chief pushes to merge 43 forces into super-forces

Metropolitan police commissioner Mark Rowley used a speech in Manchester on Friday to call for England and Wales' 43 police forces to be cut down to just eight to 10. Other chief constables, including Greater Manchester's, lined up behind him. But senior policing is split on how far to go, and the mayors are not having it.

Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool city region, called the plan 'the wolf of centralisation dressed up in sheep's clothing,' warning it would wreck local accountability. David Skaith, mayor of York and North Yorkshire, branded it a 'real threat' to local policing and said he would 'not be lectured' by Rowley on good policing. Kim McGuinness, mayor of north-east England, said the Met is 'not in a position to preach to northern police forces.'

The row has been building since January, when home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a radical reduction in force numbers and commissioned a review from former Met commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe. That review, still unpublished, is understood to float a range of nine to 18 larger forces, down from today's 43.

Many mayors want any new map drawn along mayoral boundaries instead, so they keep oversight of chief constables. Sadiq Khan is understood to be worried the shake-up could damage accountability and neighbourhood policing in London, where the Met could end up absorbing the tiny City of London force. One unnamed mayor predicted the prime minister lands in the middle: reform aligned to mayoral regions, roughly halving the number of forces rather than cutting to single figures.

Rowley isn't backing down. He told the Manchester audience that local officers can't take on international crime networks without the muscle of a bigger service, insisting reform strengthens neighbourhood policing rather than weakening it. Greater Manchester chief constable Stephen Watson piled on, calling inaction 'decline by design' and pointing at the duplication of 43 headquarters, 43 chiefs, 43 HR directors and 43 separate IT systems.

Money is the quiet driver. Senior police sources say the Treasury won't hand over extra cash, with the hope that consolidation eventually frees hundreds of millions of pounds for frontline officers and long-outdated technology. With the Hogan-Howe review unpublished and mayors digging in, the next move belongs to Downing Street.