Shaun Bailey, the Conservative mayoral candidate, has today announced an ambitious plan to increase the number of Met police officers to 40,000 if he wins the contest to run City Hall in May.

Mr Bailey says that taking the Met, which currently has fewer than 32,000 officers, to this size is “fundamental” to his plan to “regain control of crime” on London’s streets, and that he can deliver the large increase through changes including the introduction of a new tourist tax on hotels, savings from reducing City Hall waste, and the use by police of new time-saving technology.

The biggest contribution is expected to come from the Government, however, through already-promised funding increases that are expected to boost Met numbers to 36,000 or more even without any of Mr Bailey’s proposed extra measures.

Voters will, of course, have to decide whether they believe Mr Bailey’s plans are deliverable or whether they think that so many extra police officers are needed.

It is worth pointing out that Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has spoken enthusiastically of the benefits that the new officers she has welcomed to the Met recently are bringing to the organisation’s ability to bear down on knife crime and other violence. But Mr Bailey is certainly right to make tackling crime his priority.

The Met has made limited progress by reducing the number of young people suffering knife wounds and making a significant number of weapons seizures and arrests, but there is still too much violence happening and too many teens and others losing their lives.

Mr Bailey says his long experience as a youth worker in London has shown him the value that a police presence brings. His views carry weight for this reason, and it’s certainly true that extra boots on the ground, plus behind-the-scenes intelligence gathering, can play a role in stopping crime.

Law enforcement can never be the entire solution, so voters will also need to consider how Mr Bailey and the other mayoral candidates plan to tackle the underlying factors that can lead people into crime.

The current Mayor Sadiq Khan was too slow to adopt the necessary public health approach, which is now thankfully being implemented, but the coming months will allow the public to decide whether he, Mr Bailey, or one of the other candidates is the best person to take these efforts forward.

The Evening Standard will be scrutinising their plans carefully because Londoners deserve safer streets and less bloodshed.

Coronavirus turmoil

The Bank of England governor Mark Carney has today warned that coronavirus will inflict an economic hit on this country if world growth, as seems certain, drops this year because of the effect of the infection.

The disarray in world stock markets, including the FTSE 100, coupled with earnings alerts today from airline groups and warnings of major events being cancelled or held behind closed doors are other obvious signs that the effect on people’s lives is likely to be far greater in the coming months than simply the risk of contracting this worrying virus.

It makes the need for co-ordinated international action and proper planning here to contain the spread of coronavirus even more essential.

It’s alarming therefore to hear claims today from one GP that our preparations are “shambolic” with confusing advice coming from the NHS. That’s not good enough.

Ministers must make sure we’re ready on all fronts if the situation gets worse so we can minimise the health and economic fallout.

Google taps in to Tube

Transport for London has struck a £2 million sponsorship deal with Google which will see TfL’s logo on yellow Oyster-card readers replaced by the tech giant’s badge.

It’s a sensible move.

TfL has a hole in its budget so it’s good to see transport chiefs minding their own gap.