Date article online: 21/06/2006

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen has spoke of his concern, after figures he obtained showed that the Home Office Security Grant for the Labour Party Autumn Conference is set to more than quadruple since Labour came to power.  Paul said, "The figure that the Home Office will be providing to police the Labour Party Conference in Manchester is already at £4.2 Million. Since coming into power in 1997 - the Home Office Grant has rocketed from £750,000.  I will be asking for reassurances that this cost will not rise even further and that no additional cost will be met by Greater Manchester Police.  Year on year, more public money is being spent on policing Labour.  I appreciate that the security of the Prime Minister and his colleagues is important.  I do however feel that when you bear in mind that Greater Manchester Police have a Budget Shortfall of £14 Million for this year and £13.5 Million for next year - the cost to the tax payer of over £4 Million for a short conference is a bit over the top."
 
Paul will be writing to Labour Party Chairman - Hazel Blears MP to see whether the Labour Party can make a significant financial contribution to reduce this burden on the tax payer.  Paul will be looking at other issues to do with the 5 day Conference, set to take place in Manchester in September.  He has submitted other questions, including asking for guarantee that policing in Rochdale and other areas of Greater Manchester will not be affected by the Conference.  The estimated manpower is huge with 1,000 officers from Greater Manchester expected to police a ring of steel around the Conference.  In the run up to the Conference - 18,000 people will be checked upon, it is not known whether the cost of this huge exercise is part of the £4.2 million pound cost.
 
Paul Rowen MP continued, "Conferences make a lot of money for political parties and I would like to see at least part of their profits go towards paying the huge security costs.  It is worth pointing out that security costs met by the tax payer for the Conservative Party Conference went up an astonishing £215.000 in the year that David Cameron MP became Leader. The Liberal Democrats do not receive any contribution from the Home Office towards the cost of policing their Conferences."
 
The Home Office have refused to reveal how much they will be contributing to 'associated costs', 'citing security reasons'.  The costs below are for the Autumn Conference only and the annual costs are set to soar when the security grants, per year are included.
 
Meanwhile, Rochdale's Member on the Greater Manchester Police Authority, Cllr. Barbara Todd said, "I have raised this with the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police - and he assures me that the Labour Party Conference will not affect places like Rochdale."