Rowen welcomes Blair Police Solution!

Rochdale MP - Paul Rowen has welcomed an idea from Greater Manchester Colleague - Andrew Stunell MP that could relieve some of the police pressure on Prime Minister Tony Blair and help Greater Manchester. With the Cash for Honour's saga continuing and the pressure from police immense - Mr Stunell, the Lib Dem Shadow Minister asked the Prime Minister if he wanted to send some of the investigating police to Greater Manchester. Greater Manchester Police are suffering from a funding crisis that has directly led to 216 police being cut from our streets. That includes 30 from Rochdale since 2004.

The Prime Minister tried to laugh off the question - but it had a serious point to it after Lord Levy's arrest, coupled with the crisis facing local police. He also chose to ignore the any reference to both the cuts in Greater Manchester and his own problems closer to home. Paul has been working with Mr Stunell and his other 2 Lib Dem Greater Manchester Colleagues to get Greater Manchester their fair share of Government funding. Mr Stunell opened PMQ's and called for the Prime Minister to "…arrange for a transfer of resources from London to Greater Manchester so he could have a good night's sleep."

Paul Rowen said, "The Prime Minister is up to neck in sleaze and with the arrest of Lord Levy, connected to the arrest of Ruth Turner - the Prime Minister's tenure at 10, Downing Street may well be coming to an end. Whilst the police are crawling around Downing Street, police are down 30 in Rochdale whilst crime is going up. We also see the lack of front line police officers with powers of arrest, the daily disgraces at the Home Office and the rest. I will continue to work with my colleagues in Parliament and Councillors in the Rochdale Borough to make sure our streets our safer!"