Kit Malthouse, MP for North West Hampshire, shares his thoughts on 2021 in his final Advertiser column of the year.

Mr Malthouse was first elected as an MP in 2015.

He is currently Minister of State for Crime and Policing.

We end 2021 stepping up our mammoth national effort to arm everyone with a booster against Covid.

Every adult will be offered their third jab by the end of the month, and my gratitude goes to our incredible military planning teams, doctors, nurses, and volunteers who are making this possible.

If you haven’t already, please make sure you get your booster, and tell your friends and family to do so too.

As well as fighting the pandemic, we have also made huge strides this year in our fight against crime.

Despite Covid, we’ve recently carried out large numbers of drug busts - making hundreds of arrests and seizing drugs, cash, firearms and most importantly, intelligence and communications equipment.

We are putting ‘County Lines’ gangs out of business – the appalling crime where criminals use vulnerable people to move drugs through our transport system,.

This is including stations like Andover and Basingstoke.

At the same time we are pumping millions into drug treatments, so we can break the cycle of crime driven by addiction.

And I’m pleased to report that we are progressing well towards recruiting 20,000 new police officers across the country.

We’ve reached over halfway, and I will make sure a good chunk of them come to North West Hampshire.

There will be much more of this to come next year, watch out for my frequent updates, and I hope you have a restful and merry Christmas with your nearest and dearest.