Mum running for London mayor fears for seven-year-old daughter in Lawless London and calls for knife arches in schools
Mum-of-one Joy Morrissey told The Sun that any young person can get caught up in crime and gangs in the capital - and the children of single mums are particularly at risk as parents can't be home all the time
A MUM running to become Mayor of London fears for her seven-year-old girl as knife crime grips Lawless London.
Joy Morrissey, who wants to go up against Sadiq Khan in the next Mayoral race in 2020, demanded cops and knife arches be put into schools in the capital to protect vulnerable kids from spiralling violence.
Mrs Morrissey told The Sun that as a working mother she's worried about her own daughter Cara - and the children of single mums who can't be around all the time are particularly at risk.
In an exclusive interview as part of a series profiling all three Tory candidates, she demanded that emergency measures be temporarily put in place in schools to curb the problem.
She said: "As a mum, there's nothing that separates you, particularly in London. It could happen to any of us."
More than 100 suspected murders have taken place in the capital since the beginning of the year - and knife crime across Britain has hit a seven-year high.
"I look at knife crime - I'm a mother - and I think keeping our streets safe is paramount for me," she went on.
“If you’re a single mum on an estate just saying to get by and make ends meet, and your child is targeted - what can you do? You have to be at work, you have to earn a living.
"You see gang elders targeting kids and no one is doing anything.
“I want to see a policeman put into secondary schools, I would like to see knife arches brought back, and a more joined-up approach to tackling this,” she added.
“We need to make people feel safe - but also let them know there are consequences.
"It needs to be a preventative measure across the board so that people can come to school and feel safe."
And Londoners are “feeling terrified” by the recent crime wave, she added.
"Being tough on crime is where I would be very different."
She also wants more police officers on the streets, linking the Met with other nearby police forces together and a “gang register” to track the criminals who are trying to lure kids into running drugs for them across the country.
But Sadiq Khan has been too unwilling to roll up his sleeves and fix London’s difficult problems, she said.
“They are not going to be glamorous tasks,” she wants. “There’s no reason for London’s crime rate to be there is us. I’m going to hold the Mayor to account on this, and make our streets safe again.
“It won’t be glamorous, but it will make London the best it can be.”
Unusually for a London Mayor candidate, Mrs Morrissey wasn’t born in London, or even the UK. She’s a British-American dual citizen who grew up Indiana in the States. She came to London to study at the London School of Economics, met her husband and decided to settle in Britain.
“As an immigrant, I came to London for the opportunities that it provided,” she said. “Now I want to give something back.
“I never believed in blaming businesses for everything and looking to the government to solve problems - so I joined the Conservatives.”
But to win back younger people from the grasps of Jeremy Corbyn, Mrs Morrissey knows housing has to be a key plank of that offering.
“We need to show we’re a party that can deliver that hope and aspiration,” she said.
“Tackling the housing crisis, giving my generation a place on the housing ladder and a secure place to live would be a great place to start.”
She wants to do this by working with pension funds to build more affordable homes, linking rent increases to inflationary increases of 3 - 5 per cent per year - and creating a “bank of shared ownership” to help young Londoners get the financing the need to get a place of their own.
Mrs Morrissey, who has been a councillor in Ealing since 2014, previously worked in the film industry.
Before she went into politics she worked as a small-time actress, and after a stint working with Iain Duncan Smith at the Centre for Social Justice, she’s now fighting to be the Tory candidate for Mayor of London in 2020.
The successful candidate will be announced at the Tory’s annual party conference in Birmingham next month.
Who is Joy Morrissey?
Born: Indiana, USA
Age: 37
Elected? Councillor in Ealing and Acton
Occupation: Previously worked in the film industry, then for the Centre for Social Justice
Married with one daughter
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And while London opted to Remain in the EU in our historic referendum of 2016, Mrs Morrissey like all of her fellow Mayoral candidates, voted to Leave the EU and for Britain to throw the shackles off.
After studying European social policy she grew tired of the “lack of democratic accountability” and laws being forced on other countries.
Unlike Khan she wants to talk about the positive opportunities Brexit can bring the capital - and she’s backing Theresa May’s controversial soft Brexit Chequer’s deal to do that.
Khan has "made Brexit a political platform for himself, always talking about Brexit - but he doesn’t talk about how to turn it into the best for London," she said.
“Instead of harping on about the negatives, can’t we turn it into a positive?
“Let’s make Brexit the best opportunity we have for our financial services, to shape our economy and attract more investment".
A spokesperon for Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said this afternoon: “All the Tory Mayoral contenders know that Theresa May’s £1 billion of cuts to the Met police have left London’s police service with its hands tied behind its back when it comes to tackling violent crime. It’s ridiculous that none of them will admit it.
“They also know that Brexit will cause huge damage to Londoners’ jobs and prosperity – which makes it all the more staggering that they all back Brexit.
“The Tories are failing Londoners worse than ever.”