BORIS Johnson has been accused of deceiving the police after the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire police said he was disappointed that the Prime Minister had used officers as the backdrop to a highly political speech.
During the event in Wakefield, Johnson, standing in front of thirty-five new police officers, spoke about a General Election and attacked Jeremy Corbyn.
The remarks sparked fury with Mark Burns-Williamson, West Yorkshire's Labour police and crime commissioner, saying it was not appropriate use of officers as the Prime Minister had a “rant about Brexit, the opposition and a potential general election.”
He added: "There's no way that police officers should have formed the backdrop to a speech of that nature."
In a statement, West Yorkshire Police’s chief said the visit was arranged to launch a "recruitment campaign for an extra 20,000 new police officers.”
There was supposed to be four stages to the Prime Minister visit. First, he was was supposed to tour the mounted section, chat to new student officers, deliver a five-minute speech about plans to recruit 20,000 new officers, and then make a longer address at the National Police Air Service (NPAS) base at the same site, in front of media but without any officers present.
However, Robbins says that “minutes before the speech” that separate NPAS visit was cancelled.
He added that “any involvement of our officers was solely about police officer recruitment. We had no prior knowledge that the speech would be broadened to other issues until it was delivered".
Robbins said he was "disappointed to see my police officers as a backdrop to the part of the speech that was not related to recruitment."
"I am proud of the resilience and professionalism of event single one of our student officers yesterday."
Labour's shadow policing minister Lou Haigh tweeted: "The PM and his aides deceived the police by knowingly using officers for a party political stunt, without their prior knowledge.
"This is a serious breach of trust and the Prime Minister should be ashamed of putting serving officers in this intolerable position.
"However, as the public are discovering, this is a man with absolutely no shame."
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “The PM’s long-planned visit was highlighting a national recruitment campaign for 20,000 new officers, which has been welcomed across the police service."
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