Luke Myer MP at 10 Downing Street this week

2 September 2026

Luke Myer MP has taken the case for fair funding for Cleveland Police and Cleveland Fire Brigade directly to the Prime Minister and Home Secretary following a deeply difficult week for Teesside.

The intervention follows the tragic deaths of PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough on the A66 on 22 August. Since then, hundreds of officers have been deployed to support Cleveland Police as it responds to serious incidents across the area, while 27 arrests have been made as part of a major investigation into suspected serious and organised crime.

Last week Luke joined Cleveland’s other Labour MPs in talks with the Policing Minister, and over the weekend, Luke raised Cleveland’s position directly with Prime Minister Andy Burnham. He pressed the case that the national police and fire funding formulas disadvantage areas like Cleveland, where a relatively small population masks high levels of deprivation and demand.

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister said that his government would “hear the call from Cleveland MPs for a discussion about investment in policing and police numbers”, and the Home Secretary announced an immediate £2 million funding boost for Cleveland Police to tackle serious crime. Luke welcomed the emergency support, but warned that the underlying problem cannot be solved with one-off funding.

Responding, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood confirmed that reforming the police funding formula was “absolutely critical” to the Government’s forthcoming policing reforms. She committed to meet Cleveland’s MPs to discuss the timetable.

The discussions follow years of campaigning by Luke for fairer funding for both Cleveland Police and Cleveland Fire Brigade, challenging ministers in Parliament on multiple occasions.