Police in Northern Ireland being ‘slowly strangled’ by government – federation

Chris Heaton-Harris has been urged to deliver pay awards for public sector workers (Liam McBurney/PA)

The police service in Northern Ireland is being “slowly strangled” by the government using public services as a “political bargaining chip”, it has been warned.

As a new year dawns, Liam Kelly, chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, said officers are resilient but “fatigued, grappling with constant pressures, attacked and abused, under-valued and treated with disrespect by a government that certainly doesn’t appear to have their backs”.