By Steve Bargeton, political editor

SCOTTISH POLICE officers yesterday narrowly rejected a call to be given the right to strike, but backed the right to take other forms of industrial action.

Police are forbidden from taking any kind of industrial action, but at the Scottish Police Federation’s annual conference yesterday, 53% of officers supported a motion that could see them take industrial action in future.

A motion for full strike action was defeated, with 44% in favour and 56% against.

Last year 22,000 off-duty officers south of the border protested over a pay deal not honoured in full by UK ministers.

The Scottish Government split with Westminster over police pay and awarded the deal in full to Scotland’s 16,000 officers.

Yesterday SPF chairman Norrie Flowers described the UK Government’s actions as “dishonourable and disgusting” and warned, “If they are looking for trouble, they are going the right way about getting it.”

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill told officers the SNP wanted a separate negotiating board for Scottish police officers.

“As the Scottish National Party, we think there should be a Scottish national police negotiating board,” he said.

“But we will not force that upon you. We will respect your desires and we will seek to stand up for you as we have done.”

Mr Flowers said that Scottish officers had rejected the call to demand the right to strike because of members’ dedication to their job.

“We are in a quandary now—what we are saying is we’ve got a dedication and a loyalty to the public and what’s happening is the government are betraying us.

“If you are going to treat us the same as other workers we want the same rights as other workers.”

He said that the Scottish Government was “generally heading in the right direction” and praised the move to recruit 1000 extra officers.

“It is fair to say that the first few months of your government was largely taken up with debates on the police and police numbers,” Mr Flowers said.

“As we all now know, at the end of the budget process, finance was allocated for 1000 new police officers.”

There was praise too for the Holyrood justice committee’s review of the effective use of police resources, which led to more resources being allocated in the budget for policing.

In his speech, Mr MacAskill underlined the commitment to 1000 more officers on the beat.

“We are clear on that in our manifesto commitment to make 1000 additional officers available in communities,” he said.

“We are not only delivering on this but going substantially beyond by looking at recruitment, retention and redeployment.

“I know that it’s all well to have warm words and sympathy from politicians, but when it really comes down to the crunch you need to know that someone’s covering your back—and that there’s another police officer there.

“And that’s why increasing the number of police in our communities is important.”

Commenting on the Scottish decision to give the police pay award in full, he said, “An arbitration scheme is a form of contract. If you enter into it, you should be bound by it.

“Pay is vital and we are committed to a fair deal for Scottish police. But while we’ll do what we can, the existing police negotiating board structure is dominated by the agenda south of the border.”

Last night Scottish Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said he could not see police officers taking industrial action.

“I can understand their frustrations but the public would not find it acceptable for officers to take industrial action, however limited,” he said.

“We need the full support of our police officers and, from my discussions at the conference, I know we have this. I cannot envisage any circumstances where the police would not recognise their responsibilities and take industrial action.”