Home Secretary James Cleverly visits Corby to help push MP hopeful Tom Pursglove’s campaign

James Cleverly spoke to market stall holders and members of the public with the Conservative’s General Election candidate for Corby, Tom Pursglove, about their plan to boost the number of police officers on the street.

Prior to that he took the time to speak with the Northants Telegraph to discuss issues Corby faces, including the town no longer having a police station, county lines and immigration.

Mr Cleverly said that he had promised Tom Pursglove years ago that when the General Election came, he’d help campaign with him and he ‘always make good on his promises’.

Despite having the highest number of votes a Corby MP has ever received, more than 30,000, in 2019, Tom Pursglove is now currently trailing in the polls to Labour’s Lee Barron.

Mr Cleverly said: “I genuinely struggle to think of a parliamentarian that has worked harder and is more committed to his local community.

“I have absolutely no doubt that the final results will reflect that and I’m absolutely confident that the people of Corby and the surrounding areas will recognise that it is in their personal interest to make sure Tom is returned as an MP because he’s just been such a fantastic champion for the town.”

Mr Cleverly discussed many issues that are affecting Corby, including migration.

Corby is built on migration - it was just a village until thousands came down from Scotland to work in the steelworks and then after the Second World War many came over from Eastern Europe.

The Conservative government has made it an objective of theirs to bring the current numbers down.

As Home Secretary, Cleverly himself has committed to maintaining the Rwanda asylum plan and has introduced a plan to substantially reduce legal migration to the UK by raising the threshold for family visas.

He said: “The last couple of years we have seen migration levels unprecedented and they are too high, it’s about getting the balance right.

“I’m the son of a migrant, I know Corby has a good history of immigration, but it’s like anything else, too little is not good, too much is not good, and it’s about getting the balance right and at the moment it is too high and because of the work that I and Tom have put in, we’re now getting those figures back down to the more natural balance level.”

He also spoke about the police and Corby’s lack of a police station.

He said: “The really important thing now is that we have recruited across the UK 20,000 extra police officers, we’re committed to an additional 8,000 and we want to make sure that through use of better technology, communications technology, facial recognition technology, that we get those police officers out and about in the streets, whether or not that is best served by having a local police station or the use of other technology, that will ultimately be a decision for the local police and crime commissioner but I know that our commitment to getting more police officers on the street is absolutely key.”

Crime is also a hot topic in Corby with the town having been hit by a wave of shoplifting described as being like 'supermarket sweep'.

Stolen goods are being sold by drug addicts and fuelling Corby’s Class A drug trade. Some shop workers are even in fear of being assaulted.

Mr Cleverly said that the government is aware and vigilant of this issue and has a retail crime action plan.

He said: “Shopkeepers, the people that support the local economy, they deserve to be protected. We are absolutely committed, we have a retail crime action plan that we put in place, we amplified that in the months ahead of the General Election and getting more police officers on the street, as we are committed to do, will help.

“Making sure that we get a grip of prolific offenders will make a massive difference. We committed to roll out tagging for those people who are prolific shoplifters. So the combination of technology and more police officers and a relentless focus to pursue criminals and keep town centres is what you’ll get with a Conservative government.”

County lines has also been an issue in Corby and Mr Cleverly has personally dealt with this on his own patch in Essex.

He said: “County lines has been a rising challenge. Young people being tempted into criminality with promises of mobile phones and trainers and that kind of thing is something we are very, very conscious of.

“I’m very proud of the fact that we have worked very hard to close down those county lines drugs gangs and we have broken hundreds of those county lines drug movements and helped to protect some of the children but of course there is always more to do.

“We are absolutely determined to make sure that the public services are well funded but also well run, that is what you’ll get with a Conservative government and I’m sure Tom will continue to pursue that.”

During his walk around Corby town centre, Mr Cleverly, Mr Pursglove and leader of North Northants Council Cllr Jason Smithers stopped to speak with market stall holders and local shoppers, who had plenty to say to them.

One particular group of elderly lunch goers greeted Tom as a friend but some of them were unable to pledge their vote to him due to, in their words, all the other people above him.

Shortly afterward, Mr Cleverly departed along with his security team.

This was Corby’s first ministerial visit of the current General Election Campaign.