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

The local tributes to Her Late Majesty have been amazing and it makes me hugely proud that Southwark, and South London more widely, were able to play such a full part in honouring her years of service and duty to our country.

Tens of thousands of people joined the queue from Westminster along the river, past our local landmarks, including Tate Modern, The Globe, Southwark Cathedral, Tower Bridge and my local office, with the queue beginning in Southwark Park.

Last week I swore my oath to King Charles III in Parliament.

The nation moves on with our new head of state, even if it will take time to adjust to Her Majesty’s loss.

I am certain Elizabeth II’s legacy will endure here South London.

The Jubilee Line serves as a constant reminder of her long reign.

She managed change across our community and country with grace, overseeing the work of 15 Prime Ministers.

Her latest (Liz Truss) was appointed by the Queen just days before she passed, with Her Majesty fulfilling her strong sense of duty right until the end.

The new Prime Minister and her chancellor have wasted no time following the official mourning in imposing a whole new level of Tory chaos.

Most people face the growing cost-of-living crisis with trepidation, but Tory ministers see it as a chance to impose new harshness on working people on Universal Credit, while millionaires get a £55,000 tax cut next year.

Truss has only just finished trashing the Tory 12-year record in Government, including her honest assessment that the UK has “ended up with high tax, high spending and low growth” but her Government’s budget has immediately made things worse for the UK, sadly, with markets slumping and sterling dropping to dramatically low levels.

The Tories have been taken over by extremist ideologues and the impact of their beloved Brexit is painful for all to see: more job vacancies than unemployed people; the finance sector leaving the UK for the EU; and investment slumping.

The Tories dismissed economic arguments against the damage Brexit would do to our country but cannot hide from the bitter reality now.

In Southwark, people routinely say they want the house-building and infrastructure we all need, and which provide jobs and economic security.

Last week’s budget delivered none of this, instead looking set to damage our country further, generating more poverty and failing to build the homes or public services we need.

After 12 years of failure, the Tories seem to have learnt nothing. The country was promised ‘levelling-up’ and a positive legacy following Covid.

Truss is failing to deliver the stagnation even her Tory predecessors presided over.

A clean sweep is required and the contrast is clearer by the day between the dogmatic, failing Tories and their agenda of chaos, cuts and instability and Keir Starmer’s Labour prioritising fairer, greener growth for the whole UK.