PM praises Beds police in suppressing riots

Prime Minister David Cameron has praised the work of Bedfordshire police officers in keeping Bedfordshire safe and in suppressing the riots in London in his statement to the House of Commons yesterday. Bedfordshire Police send a police support unit to assist the Metropolitan Police.

By The Newsroom

Published 12th Aug 2011, 12:23 BST

South West Bedfordshire MP Andrew Selous asked the Prime Minister: “Will the Prime Minister pay tribute to police forces from outside London, such as Bedfordshire, which sent considerable numbers of officers to London and whose remaining officers have had to work greatly extended shifts, magnificently supported by large numbers of special constables, to keep policing going in Bedfordshire”, and David Cameron replied “I certainly do. I support having local police forces; I was never in favour of large police mergers and the last 72 hours have demonstrated that we can have a system that gets the police officers we need in the places where we need them”.

Andrew Selous had returned to Parliament in the middle of a family holiday in Portugal, returning by Easyjet on Wednesday night, following the Prime Minister’s recall of Parliament.