February 28, 2021

Meet 3 of our great Police and Crime Commissioner candidates

In just a few months, people will elect their local Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs).

Across the country we need Conservative PCCs to help us make this country safer.

PCCs have multimillion-pound budgets. They hire and fire Chief Constables and they decide local priorities for cutting crime.

They have a huge job. And Conservative PCCs are key to our plans for 20,000 more police officers and safer streets..

Please take a moment to learn more about three of our great PCC candidates


Festus Akinbusoye – Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate

A few years ago, Bedfordshire Police was rated as inadequate. Now under a retiring Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), it was recently rated as ‘Good’ overall by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate. As candidate to be Bedfordshire’s next PCC, I believe we can go one better than this – we can be outstanding.

Thanks to Conservative government investment, we now have more police officers than ever before. Our budget is up from £100m in 2015 to £121m. This budget will hit a record high of £129.5m in 2021-22. We are fulfilling a campaign manifesto pledge to invest in our police.

I am focused on ensuring the benefit of this record cash investment is felt by all of our residents. Despite lockdown, our campaign has gone from strength to strength, reaching over 100,000 people each month. Fair to say, as a Conservative candidate, I have a lot of positive news to share with our residents.


Peter McCall – Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner

I am pleased to be standing on the basis of performance not politics. Competent management of the budget is a fundamental start.  

This year our increase in precept will be one of the lowest in the country. Officer numbers increased before Uplift, we now have more officers in Cumbria than ever before, with more to come.  We’ve based officers back into 9 of our rural towns spreading cover and visibility where the public want to see it.  

We’ve invested in IT, more CCTV in our towns, a new Cyber Unit, mobile devices and Body Worn Cameras – improving both officer safety and evidence gathering.  

We’ve invested almost £750k in community activities, reintroduced Police Cadets and Mini Police and worked with all manner of community groups, sporting and youth activities to protect the vulnerable and prevent crime.  

But it is all about driving down crime and there’s more to do.


David Sidwick – Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate

My name is David Sidwick and I would like to be the next Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset.

My clear vision is to make Dorset the safest county in the UK by cutting crime and anti-social behaviour.

The role of the PCC is political as it represents the people – it is about asking you what you want from your police force and ensuring it is delivered.

We need to fundamentally change the strategy for Dorset police with a clear first priority to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.

We need to have more robust visible policing in our communities.

We need to be equally intent on tackling organised crime, drugs and violence, hidden harms as well as rural crime and ASB.

The emphasis must be on the victims of crime and the needs of our community not the needs of the perpetrator.

Please vote Sidwick first on May 6th 2021.


Region Labour's Pension Tax (£) Extra Months to Work
England 11,167 44
East Midlands 6,150 50
Greater London 12,871 45
North East 9,758 38
North West 6,835 47
South East 14,270 40
South West 7,407 45
West Midlands 10,729 41
Northern Ireland 13,718 35
Scotland 10,653 41
Wales 11,691 36
United Kingdom 11,253 43

Commenting, Therese Coffey, Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions, said:

“Corbyn’s Pension Tax will see ten million savers facing a huge bill forcing them to delay their retirement for almost three and a half years.
“This is just one of the ways a Corbyn government would hammer hardworking people on top of his plans to hike up taxes by £2,400 a year, as well as the cost of his plan for unlimited immigration and the chaos of 2020 being dominated by two more referendums – one on Brexit and another on Scottish independence.
“Only Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party can get Brexit done with a deal, get parliament working again and turbocharge our economy to unleash Britain’s potential.”

Read more about how this Pension Tax will impact millions of savers (PDF)

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