Brexit isn’t the only worry for Mrs May

AS Parliament returns today, this paper understands Theresa May’s preoccupation with Brexit. But while this is certainly the most historically significant challenge on her plate, there are many other issues she will neglect at her utmost peril.

Take three disturbing items in this week’s news (and it’s only Tuesday) – all of which affect the daily lives of millions on whom her party relies for support.

First came the revelation that more than 600 police stations have closed in the eight years since the Tories came to power – part of a hugely worrying trend towards withdrawing visible policing.

At any time, this would be cause for deep concern. At a time like this, with violent crime on the rampage in Wild West Britain, it suggests reckless neglect of every government’s duty to ensure public safety.

Item two is Labour’s finding that the number of trains cancelled or significantly delayed has soared by half since 2010, while fares have rocketed by 36 per cent.

True, this study does not mention that many of these delays and cancellations have been caused by strike action supported by Labour.

But while nationalisation is assuredly not the answer, it is an undeniable fact that commuters have suffered terribly as train companies put profits before customers. This is a failure of regulation that must be addressed without delay.

Item three is the latest evidence that exChancellor George Osborne’s Help to Buy scheme is simply unfit for purpose.

Though it was intended to give hard-up first-time buyers a foothold on the housing ladder, it now emerges that a fifth of those benefiting already own homes, while many given taxpayer-funded loans earn more than £100,000 a year.

Meanwhile, the greatest beneficiaries have been housebuilders such as Persimmon, whose bosses have pocketed multimillion-pound bonuses.

Indeed, each of these failures highlights an area of our national life that is simply not functioning as we have the right to expect in the world’s fifth largest economy.

Of course, Brexit matters enormously. But so, too, do visible policing, reliable trains and affordable homes for young families. It is bread-and-butter issues such as these that will decide the next election.