London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has been accused of “gutting policing” in the capital after police officer numbers dropped by 1,461, a decrease of 4.3 per cent.
The number of full-time police in England and Wales fell to 145,550 across 43 forces at the end of September 2025, driven almost entirely by the Metropolitan Police’s sharp drop to 32,332. City of London Police had a further 999, up 1.1 per cent.
