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Interior Secretary Yvette Cooper was told by the Treasury to find savings from other parts of the budget to protect spending on police.
Downing Street said the spending review, announced Wednesday by Prime Minister Rachel Reeves, was “settled” after months of negotiations between the pastor and the Treasury.
Cooper, who had been seeking more funds for police and border security, was the last minister in search of more cash.
An official close to the debate said the Ministry of Finance “can determine that negotiations have been completed.” Another said: “At some point in order to print a document and write a speech,” he said.
Those who were described in the discussion said Reeves had argued that police spending should be protected for three years of spending reviews.
One person who was explained about the consultation said police budgets would rise at a fixed interest rate of 2% per year. This is the Bank of England’s inflation target. Another source noted that this may not be enough to cover wage inflation, and that small details are still hampered.
Police chiefs, including Metropolitan Police Sir Mark Laurie, have been lobbying publicly for more cash, and are said to have been relieved that the final settlement has not deteriorated.
One police officer said: “We live with this. I don’t think people are saying this is outrageous. It’s challenging, but we’ll do our best to deliver.”
Labour fought elections that promised “safer streets” including increasing police in the neighborhood and cracking down on knife crime and violence against women and girls.
One government official said the Home Office will spend the next few weeks to best invest additional investments in the sector and “based on government priorities” using existing budgets.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner settled housing and local government budgets on Sunday, and Cooper had to accept what remains on the table from the Treasury’s three-year “expenditure envelopes.”
This will allow sector spending on daily services to rise by an average of 1.2% each year for the next three years.
The Ministry of Health and Social Care, a Whitehall Leviathan that funds the NHS, has received a 2.8% increase in real terms annually, with some sectors facing reductions in real terms.
The situation was “not unreasonable,” said one Treasury official. “There’s nothing that says every department should automatically increase its budget effectively.”
Wednesday’s Reeves spending review sets the totals of headlines for each department, but individual cabinet ministers such as Cooper will need to resolve how best to allocate resources to key priorities.
Although daily spending is constrained, Reeves will focus on the £113 billion additional capital expenditure allocated to the rest of the Congress.
Expenditures on infrastructure, including roads, rail, housing and green energy projects, were made possible by Reeves’ decision to loosen her borrowing rules in her initial budget to allow more capital investments.
Meanwhile, Pension Minister Torsten Bell gave clear hints on Monday that Reeves could announce measures to tackle child poverty in a statement Wednesday.
“We need to further advance child poverty,” Bell told MP. “We’re going to move forward with our child poverty strategy right away. We’ve clearly said that all the levers to reduce child poverty are on the table.”
Kiel’s Prime Minister Irish wants to end the child benefits for the two who have been inherited from the last conservative government, but the policy decision is expected to be made in Reeves’ fall budget.
