Bid to bar Theresa May from every pub in her constituency in row over police cuts

Theresa May faces being barred from every pub in her constituency town of Maidenhead should one furious landlord have his way.

David Kimber, who runs the Off The Tap pub, wants to call time on serving the prime minister because he says government cuts have decimated local policing budgets and left his drinkers unsafe.

"This seems to be the only way she'll get the message," he told The Sunday Mirror.

He added: "We have very few police officers here on a Friday or Saturday night.

"If something happens, officers have to come from Windsor. It takes half an hour minimum for them to arrive but we've waited an hour before.

"It's not much use after a fight has broken out.

"It's not the fault of the police but we need more funding for policing in the town."

The 26-year-old, who only opened his pub a month ago, will reportedly urge other pub owners to impose the ban on Thursday (30 November) at the town's monthly Pub Watch meeting.

The gathering usually sees local publicans discuss how to keep troublemakers at bay.

But not everyone supports imposing a town-wide ban on the PM.

Peggy Smith has been the landlady of The Rose pub, around the corner from Off The Tap, for the past 18 years, and a publican in the town centre for the past four decades.

"I don't think this kind of thing will make any difference," she told IBTimes UK. "Theresa May doesn't even drink in the pubs here anyway."

She acknowledged that some pubs had more troublemakers than others, but said she had not noticed any worsening response times from the police.

"If it's an emergency the police will come," she added.

Police budgets were cut nationally by 20% between 2010 and 2015.

While the Conservative government has since vowed to protect police funding, data released by the Commons showed forces had seen their funding slashed by £413m since 2015.

Reacting to the figures, Shadow Policing Minister Louise Haigh MP told the Daily Mirror: "Ministers have been caught red-handed. These reckless cuts are a threat to public safety."

Ex-Met Police Detective Chief Inspector Peter Kirkham branded the Tories the "party of crime and disorder". He added: "It's no surprise to me that a cut to police funding has been confirmed.

"Response times are longer as fewer officers cover wider areas and so opportunities to catch offenders are lost. Warnings of the consequences were dismissed as scaremongering.

"But we were not crying wolf. We were accurately predicting the ­consequences of the cuts and ­everything we said has come true."

Figures show that between September 2010 and September 2016 the number of police officers in English and Welsh forces fell by 18,991, or 13%.

The Home Office insists "it has protected overall police spending in real terms".