Kent’s crime commissioner Ann Barnes has called for planned funding cuts to the police force to be put on hold for a year following the events in Paris.

Mrs Barnes says she is to urge the Home Secretary to defer spending cuts saying they could threaten the security of the county.

Speaking at a meeting of the Kent and Medway crime panel, she said: "I will be writing to the Home Secretary spelling out the uniqueness of Kent and that we are the gateway to Europe.

"If there was ever a time not to reduce budgets for police it is now; if there was ever a time not to reduce spending in Kent, it is now.

"We are really a special case here. The force is working up its own response to the Paris situation.

"I am going to suggest to the Home Secretary proposing that we defer any cuts in funding for a year. I know that the Prime Minister is planning for more people in the security services but it takes time to recruit them and we have the police available now."

But Ashford MP Damian Green - a former policing minister - said that if budget cuts were made, suspending them for a year would not help.

“Clearly, policing is uppermost in everyone’s minds after Paris but negotiations are still going on. The idea of a one-year postponement would not help the police - what they want to do is get on with their long-term plans,” the MP said.

He added that it was premature to call for a delay as the Home Office was still in negotiations with the Treasury over funding for next year.

“It is premature because the Home Office is still in negotiations. We do not know whether there might be some adjustment in the wake of what has happened in Paris.”

Mrs Barnes said that Kent already had 200 specialist security staff because of its proximity to the continent.

"Who in their right mind would cut these posts?" she said.

Panel chairman Mike Hill asked the commissioner to prepare a report on the force’s response to the Paris massacre.

The cuts in the force’s budget will see Kent having to reduce spending by close to £16m in 2016-17. The commissioner said that there would be a proposed 2% rise in the council tax next year to raise an additional £1.6m.

However, there is the prospect of the force having to cut a further £62.2m from its budget between now and 2020.