Shortly before Christmas the Conservative MP and former security minister Tom Tugendhat published a lengthy post on X detailing his regular long late-night walks home from parliament. They took him past housing estates and poorer areas. He heard many languages. Some streets were dirty, others smelled of dope but, aside from the odd drunk, he never felt threatened. The capital has its issues, he added, but “London is safe”.
What made this post unusual was how much it diverged from the dialogue of the right, the populist right especially.
London is one of the world’s great cities, a thriving diverse metropolis and economic powerhouse. But this story does not work for the populist right and even parts of the once ruling Conservative party. Their leaders, allies and friends in the media prefer a different story. Nigel Farage talks of “living in lawless London”. The former prime minister Liz Truss headlined the first episode of her new YouTube show: “London is falling” (while simultaneously trying to persuade people to invest £500,000 in a new London club).