Assange stakeout costs UK £6mn

New figures show the Metropolitan Police, Britain’s biggest police force, has spent almost £6 million ($10million) for policing the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been holed up.

According to Press TV quoting the statistics obtained by London-based LBC Radio on Friday, the daily cost of monitoring the South American country’s diplomatic mission stands at nearly £9,000 ($15,000).

Baroness Jenny Jones, deputy chair of the Police and Crime Committee at the London Assembly, said the huge cost is “absolute madness” and “ludicrous.”

She added “I have been asking the Met questions about this because clearly at the moment the cost is falling on the London taxpayers as a net police cost.”

The Met police have been stationed outside the embassy in Knightsbridge, west London, every day and night over the past 22 months ready to arrest the Australian campaigner if he steps out of the building.