Thousands of police march over pay

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - About 18,500 off-duty police officers marched through central London on Wednesday in an angry protest at the government's decision not to backdate a pay rise.

The row erupted in December when Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced that a 2.5 percent pay increase, agreed by an independent tribunal, would not be backdated to September as expected.

The government argued that this had been done to keep a lid on public spending. But outraged police officers said the decision effectively cut the rise to 1.9 percent, less than the rate of inflation and saving the government 30 million pounds.

The Police Federation, a body which represents 140,000 officers in England and Wales and which organised Wednesday's protest, said it had now applied to the High Court for a judicial review of the decision.

The protesting officers, nearly all wearing white baseball caps, began their march at Hyde Park and will stop off at the Home Office to deliver petitions from every force in England and Wales, before finishing at the Tate Gallery. Rallies will then be held in Westminster.

Since the dispute began, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted that the government would not back down, saying the pay increase was in line with other public sector deals and had been made in the national interest.

"I would like to have given the police more," he told MPs saying police were doing a great job.

"But if pay rises are wiped out by ever-rising inflation, then no benefit goes to the police or to anybody who receives these benefits."