Police in London may no longer investigate thousands of crimes such as shoplifting and vandalism.

The Met Police says new guidelines will mean officers can "determine very quickly if it is proportionate" to investigate "lower level, higher volume offences" further.

There were 47,580 shoplifting offences recorded by the Met in the financial year of 2016-17.

As the force bids to save £400 million, deputy assistant commissioner Mark Simmons said the Met had to work with fewer officers and less money, with the Crime Assessment Policy introduced to help prioritise resources.

He said: "Clearly this is not about letting criminals get away with crime, or not investigating the cases we are solving at the moment, if we thought it was, we simply would not do this.

"With the pressure on our resources it is not practical for our officers to spend a considerable amount of time looking into something where for example, the value of damage or the item stolen is under £50, or the victim is not willing to support a prosecution.

"We need our officers to be focused on serious crime and cases where there is a realistic chance that we will be able to solve it."

Serious offences will continue to be investigated as before, Mr Simmons said.

He added: "Of course we are not talking about things like homicide, kidnap, sexual offences, hate crime or domestic violence, but the lower level, higher volume offences such as shoplifting, car crime and criminal damage.

"This is not to say these cases will not be investigated further, however by applying the assessment policy we will be able to determine very quickly if it is proportionate to do so."

Under the new policy 150,000 fewer offences will be investigated every year, according to reports.

Ex-Met detective chief inspector Mick Neville told the Sun: "This is justice dreamed up by bean counters in shiny suit land.

"No consideration is being given to victims. The new principles will focus police attention on easy crimes where there is a known suspect.

"Few professional criminals target people who know them, so the worst villains will evade justice. Not investigating high volume crimes like shoplifting with a loss of under £50 will give junkies a green light to thieve."

London's deputy mayor for policing and crime, Sophie Linden, said: "Government cuts to police funding have forced the Met to make £1 billion of cuts between 2010 and 2021.

"These huge cuts are making it increasingly difficult for the Met to do their job and keep Londoners safe.

"The Met will continue to have to take extremely difficult decisions unless the government does the right thing by London in the Budget and gives our police service the funding they need to keep us safe."