A SCOTTISH Government spokesperson has called a West Scotland Tory MSP’s call for more local police funding “utter hypocrisy”.

The comments come after Jamie Greene MSP reiterated his calls for a ‘Local Policing Act’.

Mr Greene claimed that the SNP has dramatically cut the number of police officers in North Ayrshire.

The area had one of the worst recorded crime records in Scotland, with last year’s figures revealing North Ayrshire is in the nationwide top 10 for crimes per head of population.

And Scottish Government figures show that in 2020-21, North Ayrshire had the eighth highest crime rate of any local authority area in Scotland, with 497 crimes per 10,000 people – compared to the Scottish average of 451.

In North Ayrshire there were 6,673 crimes, and a further 5,789 offences such as motor vehicle crime.

Most crimes that were recorded in the local council area included “crimes of dishonesty” like theft and burglary as well as fire-raising and vandalism.

Mr Greene said: “Police in our community work tirelessly day in, day out to tackle crime and keep people safe but they are being failed by this SNP Government.

“The SNP’s police merger dramatically cut the number of frontline police officers in North Ayrshire, and nationally the number of police officers has hit a record low.

“Across Scotland, more than 100 police stations have been shut since the SNP’s centralisation of the police.

“I am on the side of local police which is why I’m backing proposals to boost the number of police officers patrolling our streets with a Local Policing Act.”

A spokesperson for justice secretary Keith Brown said: “This is utter hypocrisy from the Tories – who did not propose any more money for policing in the recent Scottish Budget, and whose counterparts in Westminster have refused a pay increase for most police officers having slashed police numbers over recent years.

“The budget for policing in Scotland in 2022-23 is almost £1.4 billion, including an additional £40.5 million increase in resource funding and a further £6.6 million to mitigate the impact of Covid.

“Despite cuts to the Scottish Government’s capital budget we have more than doubled the police capital budget since 2017-18.”