THE Home Secretary must resign in order to restore the police force’s faith in the Government, the chairman of the Kent Police Federation has said.

Last night, Police Federation members from across the country passed an unprecedented vote of no confidence in Jacqui Smith because of her refusal to backdate an agreed police pay rise of 2.5 per cent to September.

Every police officer in the UK will now be balloted over whether they want to lobby for the right to strike, but the Kent branch of the body representing constables, sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors in the UK said the dispute was no longer about money alone.

Chairman of Kent Police Federation Ian Pointon said: "This has gone beyond a row over our pay rise. This is about that way the Home Secretary has treated us with utter contempt.

"She entered these pay discussions with no intention of going over the two per cent mark or negotiating, and she has exploited the fact that we cannot take industrial action.

"I don’t care whether she goes in a flurry of resignation or she slips through the backdoor in a new year cabinet reshuffle, but she has got to resign. We cannot trust her any more."

The 43 police forces in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - who are prohibited from striking by law - were told last week that an agreed 2.5 per cent pay rise would not be backdated to September 1, making it equivalent to 1.9 per cent.

Mr Pointon, a serving police constable from Maidstone, was at the Federation’s crisis meeting in London, and said most officers did not want to strike but that their confidence in getting a process of fair arbitration had been shaken by the Home Secretary’s actions.

He said: "Members feel that they have been backed into a corner.

"Police officers do not do this job to strike. They take this job to fight crime, serve the community and combat anti-social behaviour and terrorism, and they should not be distracted from this work to fight for a fair pay rise.

"We want our pay backdated, and to have a process where the terms and conditions of our jobs can be negotiated in a way that is fair, transparent and binding for everyone, including the Home Secretary."

He stressed: "We need someone who can rebuild the bridges between the Government and the police."