Reform UK's candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, Pete Newman, has said London and Camden are lawless and that the area has been let down. He argues that since 1983, a Labour MP has represented the constituency but has failed repeatedly to get even the basics right.
Newman, a former Metropolitan Police officer, claims people in Camden are not just feeling unsafe but are not safe. He points to official figures showing Camden is the second most crime-ridden area of London, recording over 173 crimes per 1,000 residents, almost double the London average.
Rising crime and closed police stations
According to Newman, weapon offences are up 20% over the past year, and four people have been murdered in the last 12 months. He also mentions phones being snatched on Euston Road in broad daylight and drugs being openly dealt and taken around King's Cross.
He criticises the response from the former Labour MP and the Labour Mayor of London, saying they closed local police stations. Camden now does not have a single 24-hour front counter.
Police front counters reduced
In 2013, London had 140 police front counters, but Boris Johnson closed 65 of them when he was Mayor. In Holborn and 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 its front desk is not open 24 hours. Newman notes that despite Sadiq Khan promising during his election that every London borough would have at least one 24-hour public counter, he closed a further 38 in 2017. Now, only two remain in the entirety of London.
Newman's pledge for change
Newman says he served for 31 years in the Met, rising to the position of Senior Detective in Central London and counter-terrorism commander. He claims he restored lawless London once before and led the Met's work to return Westminster to normality after the 7/7 bombings.
His approach starts with a zero-tolerance policy to crime, visible police on the streets, and police stations open to the public 24/7. On his first day as MP, he says he will call in the Mayor and the police chief for an urgent meeting about the spiralling crime rate in Camden, demanding a fair share of resources and the 24-hour police front counter that was promised.
Newman says Labour will deliver more of the same, while the Liberal Democrat candidate Zack Polanski cares more about a conflict 2,200 miles away than helping people in the area. He urges voters to support Reform UK on Thursday to deliver a more secure future.
Pete Newman is standing for Reform UK in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election on Thursday, October 8.
