Kent crime commissioner Matthew Scott says arming all police officers would increase the risk of American-style shootings.

He was speaking in the wake of a survey by the Metropolitan Police Federation suggesting that three quarters of serving officers favoured being routinely armed with tasers and backed having more firearms specialists.

Mr Scott, who made his comments on the latest edition of “Paul On Politics” on KMTV said: "Personally, I don’t support routinely arming the police with firearms.

"It would fundamentally change the model we have in this country of policing by consent. If you start to arm the law enforcers the others will start to arm themselves more.

Video: Watch the debate on arming the police

“You will just get yourself into a situation like America, where you would have many many more shootings taking place. It would put officers at risk as well as members of the public at risk.”

“We are policed by a force which is overwhelmingly unarmed and I think we give that up at our peril" - Ian Pointon

Ian Pointon, of the Kent Police Federation, said he did not believe that officers had any enthusiasm for being armed.

“We are policed by a force which is overwhelmingly unarmed and I think we give that up at our peril.

"And if we were ever to give that up we would have to have massive public engagement because it would be fundamentally changing the principle of policing by consent.”

Cllr Tristan Osborne, who was Labour’s candidate in the crime commissioner election last year, said: “It is unnecessary at this point and would put officers further away from the public which is the opposite of what they want to be doing at this point.”

Kent Police is recruiting another 24 armed officers under a government initiative to increase UK security in the face of recent terrorist attacks on mainland Europe.

The force stepped up armed police patrols in several locations last year, including Canterbury city centre including the cathedral, the Port of Dover and Bluewater.

It said the decision was not related to any particular threat but a response to the general heightened security following attacks in mainland Europe.