OPINION - Reform UK's Pete Newman: London and Camden are lawless - we must take back our streets

People here don’t just feel unsafe; they aren’t safe. Camden is the second most crime-ridden area of London, recording over 173 crimes per 1,000 residents - almost double the London average.

Weapon offences are up 20% over the past year. Four people have been murdered here in the last 12 months alone. Phones are snatched on Euston Road in broad daylight. Drugs are openly dealt and taken around King’s Cross… the list goes on.

This isn’t normal.

The response from the former Labour MP and the Labour Mayor of London? Closing local police stations.

Camden doesn’t even have a single 24-hour front counter. Labour have left behind an appalling record.

Pete Newman is standing for Reform UK in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

Reform UK

In 2013, London had 140 police front counters. Boris Johnson closed 65 of them when he was Mayor.

In Holborn & St Pancras, three police front counters have been closed to the public since 2010: Holborn, Albany Street and King’s Cross Road.

Kentish Town is now the only police station still open to the public, and even its front desk isn’t open 24 hours.

Despite Sadiq Khan promising during his election that every London borough would have at least one 24-hour public counter, he instead closed a further 38 in 2017.

Now, only two remain in the entirety of London.

London - and Camden - are lawless. And our leaders are only adding fuel to the fire.

Having served for 31 years in the Met, rising to the position of Senior Detective in Central London and counter-terrorism commander, I simply couldn’t stand by any longer. I knew I had a public duty to London and to Camden. We must take back our streets.

I’ve restored lawless London once before and led the Met’s work to return Westminster to normality after the 7/7 bombings.

I can do it again.

That starts with a zero-tolerance approach to crime, with visible police on our streets, and police stations open to the public 24/7.

As your MP, that is exactly what I will campaign to deliver.

On my first day, I will call in the Mayor and the police chief for an urgent meeting about the spiralling crime rate in Camden. I will demand that we receive our fair share of resources, and that this borough gets the 24-hour police front counter that Sadiq Khan promised us.

To be able to set Camden on the path to success, we must get the basics right first. That means making sure residents feel safe to go out on their own streets.

Labour will just deliver more of the same. Meanwhile, Zack Polanski cares more about a conflict 2,200 miles away than he does about helping people here.

I served this city for three decades. Let me serve you again.

Only a vote for Reform UK on Thursday will deliver a more secure future.

Pete Newman is standing for Reform UK in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election on Thursday, October 8.