Police announce right-to-strike

Tuesday, 20 May 2008 12:00 AM

Police will lobby government for the right to strike, it has been revealed.

Officers were balloted during the Police Federation's annual conference in Bournemouth today.

The BBC reports that of those that voted, 86 per cent said the federation should lobby for officers to be allowed "full industrial rights".

Currently the police are banned from taking industrial action.

Today's vote follows the ongoing pay dispute involving a 2.5 per cent pay rise to be awarded in stages.

This effectively reduced the overall award to 1.9 per cent, provoking over 20,000 police officers to protest on the streets of Westminster.

A similar vote for the Scottish Police Federation ended with police rejecting the motion, but stressing they wanted to have the right to take other industrial action short of striking.

Home secretary Jacqui Smith is due to address the conference at 10:30 BST tomorrow and can now prepare herself for a relatively hostile reception.

The Police Federation was unable to comment on the vote and a spokeswoman said a statement was being prepared.

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