I would firstly like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and thank all of you for the time and energy you’ve put in over the last year: from the work you’ve done to keep branch meetings running, campaigning in the Mayoral and Assembly elections in May to putting in the groundwork for the upcoming year’s local elections. I hope everyone got a proper Christmas break this year. You all more than earned one! I’m looking forwards to working together in 2022 to make sure we elect more Lambeth Labour councillors to continue standing up for our community.

With the most cravenly dishonest and corrupt Government of my lifetime, our community needs all the help we can get. In the past two months, it has emerged that many senior Tories were simply ignoring their own lockdown rules last Christmas: a lockdown which only had to happen because they refused to countenance a shorter, earlier one.

They partied while we were kept apart. Now they’re lying to us about it and even joking about it. If there were any real mechanisms for holding the Government to account for breaking the law, this lot would be long gone by now. Finally, cases of the Omicron variant forced me to postpone plans for a winter party with local refugees in the run-up to Christmas but I’m keen to try and reschedule this when it’s safe to do so. As soon as restrictions allow, I’ll send through more information about the exact plan but it would be great to show newly arrived refugees the warm welcome they deserve from our community.