Boris Johnson speaks out against closure of Uxbridge police station - but there’s one small problem

After a trip across the pond – during which he learned he would be subject to two new police reviews over his adherence to Covid restrictions – Boris Johnson has been filmed in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, speaking out about the planned closure of a local police station.

In a Twitter video released on Saturday, the Tory MP said: “I have been opposed to the closure of this police station from the outset. Conservatives in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Conservatives in Hillingdon – the council – have been leading the charge against Sadiq Khan’s decision to try to close this police station.

“It’s completely the wrong thing to do. Everybody can see that it’s the perfect location for a police station in Uxbridge.

“It’s right by the town centre. It gives the police all the access they need, to the people they need, to make feel secure in the way that they do – to get out on the street in the way that we want them to do.

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“What we don’t want is for Sadiq Khan and Labour to get away with the closure of this police station. So we’re going to fight, fight, fight to keep Uxbridge police station open – that’s what we need to do.”

The clip also saw Mr Johnson cite the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto commitment to introduce 20,000 new police officers by March 2023 – a target which the government hit earlier this year, but was not met by the Met (pun very much intended) and still doesn’t quite make up for the more than 21,000 officers lost between 2010 and 2018.

Not only that, but the former Mayor of London claimed he “put the funding into policing” when he had Mr Khan’s job, and when he was prime minister before a string of successive scandals forced him out of office.

Except, that comment doesn’t exactly paint the full picture (Mr Johnson is being inaccurate again? We can’t believe it either…)

The Independent reported back in 2017 – when Mr Johnson issued another tweet criticising the planned closure – that the policy of shutting police stations was introduced in 2013, when he was Mayor of London.

Oops.

In fact, Mr Johnson said at the time: “Londoners have repeatedly told us that putting more officers on the streets is their top priority, not keeping them hidden behind desks in offices which the public rarely set foot in.”

Other comments from the then Mayor included: “Sometimes I think police front counters haven’t been well used. People don’t want to report a crime there.

“A lot of people find a police station intimidating. They are becoming less and less central to our thinking.”

Well, they’re not exactly meant to be warm and bubbly environments, are they, Boris?

Anyway, after Mr Johnson left office to be an MP, current Mayor Sadiq Khan kept the policy in a bid to save £400m by 2021 – with Uxbridge police station one of those marked for closure.

Thankfully, people were on hand to point out the cause of his current frustration – him and the Tories – in the replies:

Hopefully a moment of realisation arrives for Mr Johnson soon.

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