Hampshire has choice of 'Chaos or competency' at election, Torys say

The warning comes as the Shadow Home Secretary The Rt Hon Chris Philp MP visited the county to help canvas ahead of the election on May 7.

Speaking outside the newly opened police station in Bishop's Waltham, Mr Philp said: “The polling that we have seen shows that across Hampshire it is a Conservative-Reform two-horse race, a vote for any other party risks letting Reform in. And I would urge voters in Hampshire to think about that Conservative versus Reform choice. It is competence versus chaos.

“We’ve seen, where Reform took control of county councils last year, like Kent, for example, they descended into chaos. Reform promised no council tax increases, and yet every single Reform-controlled council this year has increased its council tax; they broke their promises, so if you want competent local administration and lower taxes, the only choice is Conservative.”

Donna Jones, the Police and Crime Commissioner and Conservative candidate for Hampshire Mayor, said that the main concerns facing residents is the cost-of-living crisis, anti-social behaviour, speeding and the concerns over education and a lack of appointments.

She said: “I think those are the things that are coming up on the doorstep for us, things that are squarely at the door of the Labour government.”

Chris Philp MP (left) and Donna Jones (Image: Chris Atkinson)

Mr Philp echoed her comments, added: “If Reform were to get elected in Hampshire, the cost-of-living squeeze would get even worse as a result of the tax rises that we know Reform has put through. We know that because of they put taxes up in the 10 counties they won last year.”

Both Ms Jones and Mr Philps said that they would work to tackle the fear that crime is rising in Winchester, promising more police officers to patrol the area.

Ms Jones said: “I think it’s about trust, confidence and reassurance. Winchester is an incredibly safe city. It has a fantastic Business Improvement District in the city centre who work very closely with the neighbourhood policing teams. Secondary to that, Winchester is a very large rural area as well, and last year in June, I unveiled the new rural crime taskforce, and what we’ve seen is a massive increase in organised crime gangs targeting Hampshire because of the expanse of land that we have. We’ve seen a number of gangs working in rural communities brought to justice.

“The other main issue in the centre of Winchester is shoplifting, like all city centres. We have seen one of the biggest in-shop-lifting charge rates in the country here because I made it a priority 18-months ago, and as a consequence, we’ve had 131 of our most prolific shoplifters sentenced to 35 years in prison over the last year”.

Mr Philp added that nationally there is a plan to recruit more than 10,000 police officers, and that approximately 300 of them would come to Hampshire to “intensively hotspot patrol town and city centres”, including Portsmouth, Southampton and Winchester.

Mr Philp said that these patrols would help tackle crime and build confidence in the police.