Around 40,000 police officials in Britain may lose their jobs if the government goes ahead with its proposed 25 percent budget cuts, a media report said Friday.

The Police Federation, which represents officers in England and Wales, said such a staff reduction would make policing 'unsustainable', the BBC reported.

It was inevitable that crime would go up, the federation said in a statement.

Policing and Criminal Justice Minister Nick Herbert, however, said the federation was simply speculating at this stage.

'We do have to be careful not to make assumptions and then to follow on from that with suggestions that may unnecessarily alarm the public,' he said.

'Very large sums of money are still going to be made available to policing,' he said.

Meanwhile, the Hampshire Constabulary - a local police force in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight - said it would axe 1,400 people or 20 percent of its total workforce.