The country is in crisis and the Tories have given up the pretence of acting in the national interest. They are risking the future of the UK itself and this week will be extremely busy in Parliament as a result. Local Labour branches will also be voting this weekend on my re-selection giving me much to focus on! But I chair the Parliamentary Group aimed at ending homelessness and I welcomed St Mungo’s service users and volunteers in Parliament on Monday. Many of the visitors are current or former rough sleepers and we had a discussion about their experiences of being failed by the system, particularly in terms of mental health support.

We are one of the wealthiest nations on the planet and no one should be homeless, but the number of rough sleepers has more than doubled since 2010, shockingly. St Mungo’s staff and volunteers do an incredible job helping homeless people locally in very challenging circumstances. They run the Southwark Outreach Team which works with StreetLink to connect rough sleepers to support services – if you see someone sleeping rough who needs help you can call them on 0300 500 0914 or go to https://www.streetlink.org.uk/StreetLinkActionVF.