PHILIP HAMMOND today contradicted Prime Minister Theresa May’s claim that police can expect more funding.

The Chancellor said that forces must “shift” the resources they already have from “lower priority” crime into tackling the record level of knife crime rather than expect cash in his spring statement next week.

His comments on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme are at odds with Ms May’s claim during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday that police will receive more money this year and the next.

Hours after PMQs, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said after an emergency meeting with chief constables that the government must take heed of police “when they talk about resources.”

Mr Hammond also suggested there would be more money for public services over the next three years if MPs vote for the PM’s Brexit deal next week.

He claimed that the money would come from a stash that has been “set aside to deal with the possible disruption of a no-deal exit.”

The Chancellor insisted police budgets were rising, and suggested there was no point in investing in the future to tackle current issues. Knife crime is “an immediate problem, you cannot solve it by recruiting and training more officers – that takes time,” he mused.

Ms May has claimed there is no correlation between rising violent crime and around 21,000 fewer police officers in England and Wales since 2010.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “This is a national emergency with rising violent crime, stabbings on our street, police chiefs calling for more resources and police officers, and our tin-eared Chancellor is acting like a management consultant, telling the police they just need to spend their money more efficiently.

“After nearly a decade of austerity which has decimated our communities and the slashing of 21,000 police officers, the two most senior members of the government are in total denial about the impact of police cuts. You can’t protect people on the cheap.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan and seven police and crime commissioners sent a letter to Ms May today warning that a “broken” school exclusion system is exacerbating the surge in violent crime.

“It cannot be right that so many of those who have committed offences have been excluded from school or were outside of mainstream education,” it said.

The letter also urged an end to “off-rolling” – removing troubled pupils from school registers – to increase average exam results.