The Tories have led us to the slowest growth rate for two centuries, and the biggest fall in living standards in a generation – all while telling us that everything is fine.

Liz Truss’ disastrous Tory mini budget hit Chelmsford hard. Higher rents, higher mortgages and higher bills – we’ve all been suffering the consequences.

Labour’s plan for small businesses will help our high streets recover. Our plan for a new industrial strategy will deliver economic growth. Both will deliver new, well-paid jobs, and get Britain up and running again.

We’ve been speaking to people across our City and it’s so common to hear that they can’t get a speedy appointment at the GP, or are stuck on a waiting list for a procedure. Our city deserves better.

Labour is the party of the NHS, and will channel more investment into our local services, get us more appointments so that Chelmsfordians can live healthy lives and can rely on their loved ones getting the medical attention they need.

The numbers of people crossing the channel in small boats has surged under the Tories. Right now, all the Tories are offering are expensive gimmicks that we all have to pay for.

Keir Starmer has a plan to launch a new Border Security Command. The command will be led by a former police, military or intelligence chief, and direct hundreds of specialist investigators. Keir Starmer has taken on crime gangs before as chief prosecutor, and he will do it again as Prime Minister.

All of us are paying a Tory premium on our energy bills thanks to 14 years of failure. The Tories have squandered clean energy opportunities and left us exposed to markets controlled by dictators like Putin. It doesn’t have to be this way.

This Labour Government will set up Great British Energy. Great British Energy will work with private partners to take back control of our energy supply, produce cheaper power and ensure that profits go back into communities.

Antisocial behaviour is having a clear and negative impact on town centres and communities across the country, including in Chelmsford. Nothing is being done however, as the Tories have decimated neighbourhood policing.

Labour’s pledge to put 13,000 extra neighbourhood police and PCSOs on the beat will give every community a named officer they can get in touch with, so policing gets back to doing what it’s supposed to do.

Both our Tory government and Tory County Council have let our schools down, leaving them under-resourced and failing to attract talented new teachers.

After 14 years of Tory failure, we’re now seeing children left without teachers in key parts of the curriculum, such as languages and the STEM subjects.

The next Labour Government will not only recruit the teachers we need, but make sure they have high-quality professional development to get better and keep delivering for their pupils.