IAN LAVERY MP warns that decades of neoliberal policies have left former industrial communities behind — but a renewed Labour commitment to working people could change the political landscape
I HAVE now lived at all four ends of London. Near the end of the Holloway Road, in Jeremy Corbyn’s north London constituency, which sweeps through a borough where two in five children are in poverty.
Kensington and Chelsea to the west, where life expectancy can drop a decade over the course of a zebra crossing. In the East End, where Canary Wharf bankers overlook condemned housing estates. And Lambeth in the south, a short walk from Parliament yet synonymous with deprivation since the days of Oliver Twist.
All are teeming with life and culture and community and a defiant, driven spirit. All are so much more than their grim data, which is exhibited in Trust for London’s newest London poverty profile this week. And yet that data gives a forensic portrait of how crippled our city is.
If we can tackle the big issues, like delivering decent public services and affordable state-built and owned housing by making the richest pay a fair amount of tax, Labour can win back the trust and support of the electorate, argues ANDY McDONALD MP
Our housing crisis isn’t an accident – it’s class war, trapping millions in poverty while landlords and billionaires profit. To solve it, we need comprehensive transformation, not mere tokenistic reform, writes BECK ROBERTSON


