Staff ReporterLabour is promising to put 10,000 additional police on the streets of England and Wales if the party gains power in the General Election.
In his latest campaign pledge, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said extra “bobbies on the beat” will be funded by reversing Tory cuts to Capital Gains Tax.
In last year’s Budget, the Government announced plans to cut the higher rate of CGT from 28% to 20% and the basic rate from 18% to 10%.
But the Tories dismissed the proposal as “”nonsensical”, saying Labour had already committed the CGT savings to fund other pledges.
The move will be seen as an attempt by Mr Corbyn to claim the political initiative on law and order – an issue on which he has been accused of being weak in the past.
Labour said that under its plan, funding would be provided for the 43 forces in England and Wales to take on 10,000 additional officers in community policing roles.
This is the equivalent of one officer for every electoral ward at a cost of £300 million a year by 2021/22.
Speaking in Southampton on Tuesday, Mr Corbyn will attack what he will say have been “unacceptable” cuts to policing under the Tories, with a 20,000 fall in officer numbers since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.
But the Conservatives said Labour had already promised to spend the savings from CGT on schools, welfare and the arts.
Policing minister Brandon Lewis said: “Jeremy Corbyn promises all sorts of things but we all know he can’t deliver. He and his supporters want to take away the powers the police need to keep us safe.”
Commenting on Labour’s proposal on Good Morning Britain (GMB), the Home Secretary dismissed it, saying that “none of Jeremy Corbyn’s calls add up”.
Amber Rudd continued: “I’d ask people to consider, are there any circumstances in which Jeremy Corbyn can enhance this country’s security?”
Ms Rudd said the Labour leader had previously been “reluctant to support the police” and questioned where the money for the extra police officers would come from.
Echoing Mr Lewis, Ms Rudd said that the proposed funds raised from the CGT had already been allocated to schools, welfare and the arts.
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, meanwhile, will attack Labour for taking the votes of ethnic minority communities for granted.
At an event at Westminster Synagogue he will say the party was not even bothering to engage with some communities because it believed the ethnic minorities would vote Labour regardless.
But the Lib Dems have themselves come under fire from Theresa May who accused them of preparing to “prop up” Jeremy Corbyn in government so they could derail the Brexit process.
The Prime Minister is campaigning in the South West where the Tories are preparing to fend of a fightback from the Lib Dems who are hoping to regain seats they lost to the Conservatives in the 2015 general election.
