By political editor Paul Francis

Government plans to scrap police authorities and replace them with elected commissioners have been backed by new Rochester and Strood MP Mark Reckless.

Mr Reckless, who is a member of the Kent Police Authority, used his maiden speech in the Commons to say the plans would make the job of holding police chiefs to account more effective.

His backing comes in the face of disquiet among some police chiefs worried by the policy and opposition from some councillors who sit on police authorities.

The Conservative MP also took a sideswipe at what he said was the "movement of power from locally appointed and accountable chief constables to an organisation that is both a private company and a trade union with a closed shop - the Association of Chief Police Officers."

He criticised the organisation, saying it was too dominant and insufficiently accountable.

"It has its committees and its cabinet, and it issues instructions to us in Kent on how much we should charge for policing the Faversham carnival or the Maidstone water festival. It is right that we should now move and have directly elected police commissioners to rebalance the policing landscape and restore local democracy," he told the Commons.

On the merits of elected commissioners, he said: "It must be right that those who exercise the coercive power of the state should be held to account by those whom they serve. I have heard the odd senior police officer oppose those plans yet there is no suggestion of any intrusion on the chief constable’s prerogative. The powers that will be transferred are currently those of police authorities."

The plan for directly elected leaders is expected to form a key part of the main Home Office bill to reform policing and licensing laws, due later this month.