An ex-police officer has warned Labour risks “cutting corners” on vetting standards in a bid to meet diversity targets, as ministers push ahead with sweeping reforms to policing.

Speaking to GB News, Oliver Laurence said robust national vetting guidelines already exist and must be properly enforced, warning forces should not be driven by pressure to boost numbers at the expense of public safety.

The Home Secretary is set to unveil major policing reforms this month, with a white paper arguing that England and Wales’s 43-force structure is fundamentally unfit for tackling contemporary criminal activity.

Government briefing documents describe the existing system as outdated and incapable of protecting communities from increasingly sophisticated offenders.

Speaking on The People’s Channel, Mr Laurence said: “This is a massive project and I think we’ve only got to look at probably the challenges that Police Scotland face in these huge overhauls.

“Since the evolution of that organisation, they’ve got a thousand less fewer officers on the street, 2,500 officers. They can’t actually deploy 200 less police stations and £2billion taken out of frontline policing.

“So the biggest question here is how are we going to implement this. What’s the funding model going to be like? And we’ve got to make sure that we have operational police officers as part of these discussions.

“My biggest concern is that communities, the smaller communities outside our big cities, the ones that are going to be impacted by a significant reduction in service of officers being able to respond to their needs and expectations.

“So there are massive challenges and this is going to take some time to implement.”

The Metropolitan Police has published a review into its historical vetting and recruitment practices as part of what it describes as an unprecedented drive to raise professional standards across the force.

The review, commissioned by the Met Commissioner, sets out steps taken to strengthen vetting processes and address previous failings in recruitment.

It follows public concern and the force’s own identification of a number of serving officers and staff who were not properly vetted at the time of their appointment.

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Discussing this, Mr Laurence said: “Clearly, accountability at the chief officer level is absolutely crucial.

“We hold frontline officers accountable every day for their actions and for how they carry out their jobs.

“But chief officers often seem to ride through some of the biggest scandals we’ve seen and walk away with large pensions and little more to answer for.

“That accountability, I think, would be very welcome across the country particularly among lower ranks and the public.

“On vetting, there are already national guidelines in place for how officers are assessed and it is imperative that forces and organisations across the country follow them.

“They must not be driven by pressure to increase numbers under diversity, equity and inclusion targets.

“We want police forces to be representative of their communities, but we do not want corners cut to meet recruitment numbers.”