Cleveland Police receives £2m emergency funding after A66 crash killed two officers

The Home Secretary has pledged £2m to Cleveland Police following the A66 crash that killed two officers and five others. Local politicians say the sum falls far short of what is needed.

Cleveland Police handed £2m after fatal A66 pursuit crash — but critics call it "insulting"

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced £2m in additional funding for Cleveland Police in the wake of the A66 crash on 22 August, which killed two officers and five other men, BBC News reports.

PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough died when a vehicle being pursued by police struck them head-on near South Bank, Middlesbrough. The five men travelling in the car that caused the collision also died.

Since the seven deaths, Cleveland Police has arrested 27 people for activities it has linked to "serious and organised crime". Around 200 officers from other forces have been drafted in to support Cleveland Police as it dealt with a succession of incidents in the area, including homes being rammed and vehicles set alight at a vigil.

Mahmood told the House of Commons the money was a direct response to the pressures the force had faced. "We will allocate an additional £2m to Cleveland Police to tackle serious crime in the area," she said. "We will do our best to support the Middlesbrough community, which is hurting and grieving right now."

Critics: a one-off payment is not a solution

The announcement drew swift criticism from politicians across the political spectrum.

Conservative MP Chris Philp described the £2m as "wholly inadequate" and raised concerns about a broader funding shortfall. "This lawless gang chaos should never have been allowed to take root in the first place," he said.

Cleveland's Labour Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Matt Storey went further, calling the payment "insulting" and "performative". "It does nothing to address the chronic underfunding that has disadvantaged policing in Cleveland for years," he said.

Storey argued the force requires at least an additional £20m every year to recruit and retain 200 more officers and to mount an effective response to serious and organised crime. He said the funding formula used to determine each force's allocation fails to account for the high levels of poverty and deprivation in the Cleveland area, and called on the government to change that formula immediately rather than waiting for the outcome of a policing reform inquiry expected in 2034.

"That's too long, we can't wait eight years — it should happen now," Storey said.

Highest crime rate in England and Wales

Labour MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, Andy McDonald, told the Commons that Cleveland Police recorded the highest rate of crime of any force in England and Wales — approximately 123 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents — yet had also suffered the largest percentage reduction in officer numbers since 2010.

"Police numbers are not the only factor, but a force facing the highest demand in the country needs the resources to respond," McDonald said. He welcomed the £2m as a partial contribution but called for funding shortfalls to be "urgently and permanently corrected".

Luke Myer, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, similarly pressed the government to review how policing funds are distributed.

Mahmood said she was committed to reviewing the funding formula and placed responsibility for falling officer numbers nationally on the previous government. She said she would update MPs once an independent review of police force structures had been completed, and offered to meet local MPs to discuss longer-term investment and funding concerns.

Source: BBC News