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

Christmas is fast approaching again and seems to have come round very fast.

Harold Wilson famously said that ‘a week can be a long time in politics’.

If a week is a long time, then the last three months has seen about a decade’s worth of events, with the Conservatives imposing on us three different Prime Ministers, four different Chancellors, and two Budgets – the last to pay for some of the catastrophic consequences of the first.

Due to Tory failure, we are all paying more tax now than at any point since 1948.

The highest tax in eight decades.

The difference is that in 1948 people knew they were paying the debts of defeating the Nazis and were creating, under the first ever majority Labour Government, our NHS, the welfare state and undertaking the largest ever programme of house building.

A positive legacy after the devastation of the Second World War. Sadly, high tax today is not paying for a positive legacy out of the crisis of Covid.

Record Tory taxes now pay for worse services today.

Longer NHS waiting lists (which Sunak dodges), including one in 10 people having to wait longer than two weeks to get a GP appointment in my constituency.

But all public services have suffered under Tory mismanagement, and the Home Office is one of the worst.

Visa delays are abysmal, but we are also getting extremely poor value for money when it comes to rocketing crime and antisocial behaviour, but prosecutions plummeting.

In my community, there have already been an extra 139 burglaries this year compared to 2021, and my inbox has seen a dramatic rise in complaints about antisocial behaviour.

I have been working with the local council, police and housing associations to fight this, but action and resources from the top of Government are badly needed to fix the issue after a decade of cuts to the police and the failure to rebuild officer numbers to their 2010 level.

Tackling the damage the Tories are doing from Opposition is not easy, but I’m determined to do what I can to support people in my community in these extremely difficult times.

Local charities tell me that one of the biggest barriers people experience is knowing what support is available and how to access help, so I’ve created a ‘Cost of Living’ guide which is available online to help anyone at: www.tinyurl.com/NC-COLC and copies will be available for constituents from my office and through Southwark organisations.

I hope this practical leaflet will help people worried about making ends meet with information on extra benefits, mortgages, energy and internet costs and more.

It seems that each Christmas sees the Government lurching from disaster to disaster, with the Conservative cost-of-living crisis hitting everyone in 2022 and leaving people worrying about whether they can afford to put the heating on, never mind paying for Christmas presents and treats.

I hope despite pressures, you have a happy Christmas with family and loved ones and I hope 2023 brings the peace and stability we all need.