POLICE numbers will be cut to the “lowest level on record” if the government leaves forces to cough up for a pensions funding gap, shadow policing minister Louise Haigh warned ministers today.

Police chiefs told ministers last month that up to 10,000 officers’ jobs could be cut because they face a funding shortfall of nearly £600 million over two years caused by proposed pension changes.

Forces have been told to find £165m in 2019-20 and up to £417m in 2020-21 as a result of the change.

Ms Haigh told MPs that Prime Minister Theresa May “shamefully” told MPs that police chiefs have known about the pension changes for years, but police said they were only first told in September this year.

She added: “So, quite apart from the fact the Prime Minister should apologise to this house, the government should apologise to the police for such rank incompetence.

“Is it any wonder now that police chiefs are taking the unprecedented step of taking the government of today to court? Without the government giving a firm commitment today that the government will meet the full cost of these pension changes, it is inevitable that further officers will be lost next year.”

Ministers are “actively making it harder for the police to keep us safe,” she also said.

Home Office Minister Nick Hurd dismissed her comments as “some of the most disgraceful pieces of shroud waving” he’d seen and later said that the loss of up to 10,000 officers was “exaggerated.”

He went on to agree that 43 forces in England and Wales have an “unbudgeted” pension cost of £165m next year that he attributed to changes in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s projections for GDP growth.

He added: “We are working extremely hard with police and the Treasury to find a solution to this.”

Tory MP Philip Hollobone warned that police finances were “incredibly stretched” and that “dumping £165 million of pension liabilities is going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

He urged Mr Hurd to get the Treasury to reconsider the plans.

Meanwhile, public confidence in the police has been “severely dented” as forces struggle to deliver an effective service, the public accounts committee (PAC) said in a report released today.

PAC chairwoman Meg Hillier said: “The ‘thin blue line’ is wearing thinner with potentially dire consequences for public safety.”

It is taking longer to charge suspects, fewer arrests are being made and neighbourhood presences have been stripped back, the MPs said.