The Sun reported this week that a breakaway police officer group called the National Police Association wants to open the door to strikes after having “launched a legal challenge to the law which stops officers unionising.” This was denied furiously by the NPA, which said it is a “the mistaken belief that our mission and legal challenge exists to ‘open the door to strikes”…
The NPA was founded last year by ex-Police Federation officials and is led by Lee Broadbent, who used to chair the Greater Manchester branch of that organisation. Broadbent has been quite vocal in the past about one thing: giving police the right to strike:
- July 2025: “As part of the legal advice, I did ask for advice on the right to take industrial action in some forms and received advice back on that. And, both sets of the advice under the Article 11 and obviously the right to take industrial action, right to strike, didn’t close the door on the argument. There were avenues that could be pursued.”
- July 2025: “we have the choice to make. Do we resolve the one argument that we have, end the monopoly, break the monopoly that the Federation hold, completely revolutionise the way that police officers are represented in this country, allow us to form our own union and organisation, and then should we want to visit the question of the right to take industrial action and the right to strike, then we start building a war chest as a new union association? And we might have that fight down the line.”
- December 2025: Reposts cartoon showing ‘right to strike’ on police officer’s wish list.
- July 2025: “Arguably, where [sic] we to pursue a right to strike or take industrial action, that [crown] status may change, but that’s not what this challenge is about. This challenge is about creating change/choice in who has the privilege of representing police officers.”
- February 2023: “I think the conversation around changing strike legislation (safe staffing levels) presents an opening we could exploit… starting that conversation and applying pressure would be a meaningful step.”
Another NPA founder Steve Hartshorn told the BBC in 2023 that giving police a right to strike is “a potential we have to look at, yes.” Striking police officers are exactly the kind of headache to come in under a Labour government…
