We joined Conservative Prospective MP Tim Barnes at home in Soho for a special extended version of "Diary of a Candidate". Tim explains
"Good evening. For my Diary of a Candidate video this week, I wanted to do something a little bit different. So I'm here at home in Soho, not just doing a walk-around video after one of our events, to take a little bit of extra time to explain some of what it is that we're finding when we go and talk with local residents here in Cities of London and Westminster.
"We've done a series of really quite good-natured hustings, myself and my fellow candidates, over the last few days.
"So a great trip to Harris Westminster Sixth Form, a local hustings with the group of Citizens Assembly for west central London.
"We have done an event with one of the synagogues, who was hosted for several of the other synagogues across the constituency, for a one that was really quite concentrated on Jewish issues.
"We've also had a hustings in Soho just last night, which was open to members of the Soho, Fitzrovia and Marylebone Residents Associations. "And in addition to all of the things that come into my email inbox and all of the things that we find when we go and talk to people on the doorsteps, there are some consistent themes.
"The consistent theme that wraps it all together is that people are thinking local, what they're talking about, what they raise questions about by and large, things like e-bikes and the failure by the local council in Westminster to address the taking over of public space, car parking spaces and pavement spaces by e-bikes.
"They’re talking about crime. The failure of Labour's Sadiq Khan to get a grip on crime. He's the man who's responsible for the Met in London and yet when people talk about it, they talk about their everyday experiences of feeling concerned and fears of having their mobile phone stolen, of shoplifting, of anti-social behaviour and the fact he’s failed to get a grip with it.
"When we've been to take hustings or gone and knocked on doors on many of our social housing blocks and areas, lots of it's been about housing repairs and the difficulties of getting those things done, whether or not that Westminster City Council or over on the Golden Lane Estate in the City, that's a consistent theme.
"But it's these local things that people are really using to make their decisions. "And when we go knock on doors and talk to people, when they hear that I'm the only one of the three candidates who lives in the constituency that really matters.
"We're not talking about a councillor from Tower Hamlets who doesn't really have anything in her background that's, anything other than working in politics.
"We're not talking about a journalist from Chelsea.
"We're talking about somebody who lives here, who's been a councillor here and knows how to get things done here.
"And it means we're also not seeing a rise in some of the smaller, parties, such as Reform, such as the Greens, that we might expect in a time of difficulty.
"What we are seeing is people who are hugely engaged. "We're not looking for, stories of residents feeling apathetic. In fact, I'm finding quite the contrary.
"In my 20-something years as a Tory party activist and campaigner, councillor and candidate, I have always found that there are a few people who just didn't really know there was an election happening and didn't really care.
"That's not the case this time. There's plenty of people who are out there who have not yet made up their minds, people who are perhaps disaffected Tories or perhaps, always voted Labour in the past but don't really believe in Keir Starmer now, a bit unsure about what he actually thinks about things.
"Is he really a left winger?
"Is he really a right winger? Is he really a centrist? Does he know?
"Is Diane Abbott in the party? Out the party? In the party back again?
"Those are the things that people are asking us about.
"Well, those are the things that we're trying to discuss. And mostly, it comes down to who is local. What are you going to do locally in order to make things better for us?
"And for me, the key message is this we already have a Labour council in Westminster. We already have a Labour mayor seeing himself across London, including Westminster and the City. We may well have a Labour government and people are so distrustful they would like a Conservative in the mix in order to hold them to account.
"That Conservative is me. I am your strong local choice. Please vote for Tim Barnes on Thursday, 4 July."
