I’ve been out campaigning in your neck of the woods this week... I’ve been to Ealing, Hillingdon, Brent, Barnet and Uxbridge in the course of a few days, and want to thank everyone I met for their fantastic welcome. The subject that came up time and time again was knife and gun crime. The people of North West London have suffered a series of terrible tragedies over the last couple of years, and stories of stabbings or other attacks are sadly pretty common in the pages of local papers. I was appalled to learn that last year Brent’s hospitals admitted a patient with a knife wound every fortnight, and that in Hillingdon, violent crime has increased by nearly 20% in the last five years.

It is time we had a serious strategy to deal with this epidemic. I believe that London needs a Mayor who will take charge of the Metropolitan Police Authority and work to beef up the police presence on the streets. We should provide the police with more hand-held scanners to root out the guns and the knives, and we should work with the boroughs to tackle anti-social behaviour, which can lead to more serious crime. I am determined to win this election to take these steps towards greater safety for Londoners, and I will be campaigning relentlessly over the next three weeks to achieve a victory. Every vote counts, so if you haven’t yet registered to vote please remember to contact your local council and secure your say on the issues that matter. If you want to see the changes I am proposing, you must vote for them.