The Tories laid down a sharply anti-democratic agenda in last month’s Queen’s Speech, announcing 31 Bills which build on some of the authoritarian legislation brought forwards in the last Parliament, notably the Overseas Operations Bill and the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill. Together, these sent a clear message that instead of focusing on the ravages of the pandemic and delivering on their own stated Levelling Up agenda, Boris Johnson’s Government are more interested in consolidating wealth and power in the hands of the few.

Child poverty in Streatham now stands at 37% after a decade of out-of-control housing costs, increasingly insecure work, and a decade of punitive welfare policies. Rather than coming up with a plan to address the sheer scale of unmet social need in the UK, the Tories are instead shoring up their own grip on power and moving against some of the progressive social movements that have highlighted these injustices. As the UK begins to come out of the pandemic, we need to keep up the momentum that forced the Tories to stall their Police Crackdown Bill in the last Parliament and offer voters a message of hope and transformation.