In My View: Neil Coyle, MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark

It is a year since the Tories imposed Liz Truss on the UK and cost the country billions in their disastrous ‘mini-Budget’.

Her short premiership is still costing South Londoners and the rest of the country in higher bills and mortgages every week and follows 13 long years of bad Tory choices that end up costing more, like axing ‘Building Schools for the Future’ in 2010 and now seeing crumbling concrete damage children’s opportunities.

One school in South London that was due to have funding under this programme but lost out in 2010 is now confirmed to have RAAC (the unsafe concrete).

Truss’ Budget was not even the pinnacle of the Tories prioritising ideology over national interest, with Brexit damaging our economy daily and leaving businesses and public services short-staffed.

Police cuts from 2010 are just one more example of the short-term thinking of Tories which has cost communities like Southwark for a decade and left nine in 10 crimes unsolved by an over-stretched police force.

My constituents tell me they are concerned about rising antisocial behaviour locally, and they know that there are still less police officers and police and community support officers (PCSOs) in Southwark now than in 2010.

The Tories have given up even registering fraud and IT crime in the national statistics, only adding to their criminal record failing London and the UK on law-and-order issues.

Labour is committed to restoring neighbourhood policing by introducing 13,000 new dedicated neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs, with greater visibility and accessibility.

I always advise reporting any crime or antisocial behaviour, which you can do online: https://www.met.police.uk/ or on 101 if it is not an emergency.

The police cannot allocate resources to tackle issues if no one reports them.

I’ll keep pressing for the right resources and powers to tackle crime in Southwark and across South London.

Last week, I raised rising antisocial behaviour with the borough commander, and look forward to joining him for a local patrol soon.

In Westminster, international crime has raised its head with the arrest of a Conservative parliamentary researcher allegedly spying for China.

This is gravely serious. As MPs, we do not control the background checks for our staff and are reliant on security services to help.

I think enhanced checks for anyone connected to more sensitive issues, like defence and foreign affairs, are necessary as well as powers to block appointments, including to the Lords where Boris Johnson shockingly overruled security advice in appointing a Russian peer.

This is unacceptable but demonstrates that the Tories have stopped taking national security seriously.