Police Federation to warn Theresa May

The Police Federation was on Wednesday expected to warn Theresa May, the home secretary, that she "is on the precipice of destroying a police service that is admired throughout the world".

May was expected to be received in complete silence by the 1,000 police officers at their annual conference in Bournemouth on Wednesday, just one week after 30,000 off-duty police officers marched in protest against the 20 per cent funding cuts.

Paul McKeever, the federation's chairman, was expected to tell May she can't expect officers to take an unfair share of those cuts and "just sit there and be content with their lot".