As London prepares to host the DESi Arms Fair tomorrow, Jenny Jones, Green Party home affairs spokesperson (and member of the London Met Police Authority) has called on the organisers to pay for the cost of policing the event.
Jones said: "I can’t think of anything more wasteful than the London police using their precious time protecting a marketing place for guns and bombs. It is unacceptable to expect Londoners to foot the bill for an event that they don’t want."
"I will be pressing the London Mayor at question time on Wednesday, to ask the organisers to cover the whole cost of policing the event. At a time when police have been working hard to tackle the problem of knife crime, it is appalling that they have to waste around four and half thousand police officer shifts protecting the international arms trade."
"I’ve been inside this event to take a look for myself, and I think it is obscene. The Government should end all its subsidies for the arms industry. I hope this is the last arms fair ever held in London."
Policing the 2007 DESi arms fair took 4475 police officer shifts and 294 police staff shifts, at a total cost to the Met of £1.469m (£1.178m in opportunity costs, £153k in overtime and £138k in non-pay costs).
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Notes to Editors
1) At the Excel Centre arms fair in 2003, Jenny went inside as an official guest to take a look for herself.
2) In December 2008, the Met Police Commissioner said: "While any policing requested by the organisers for inside the venue would be paid for by them, the policing of demonstrations that occur outside the venue are a part of the MPS’s statutory duty to deal with protest and as such no charge can be levied."
Jenny Jones’s question at Mayor’s Question Time on Wednesday will be: "What is your view of London’s hosting an international arms fair?"