Southall MP asks Prime Minister to back reopening of town's police station

The MP for Ealing Southall has asked the Prime Minister to support her campaign to reopen Southall police station, which has been closed for almost a decade.

Deirdre Costigan, the Labour MP for the constituency, raised the station during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday 14 October.

According to the official parliamentary record, she told MPs: "Almost 10 years ago, the shutters on Southall police station were pulled down for good because of austerity cuts by the Conservative Government."

A shuttered station in the town centre

Ms Costigan said the closed station sits in the middle of Southall's town centre. She told the Commons that its pulled-down shutters send a message to criminals that they can get away with it, and that residents feel nobody cares.

She asked the Prime Minister to back her campaign to have the station reopened. Her question was met with cheers from the benches. Footage of the exchange shared with UB1UB2 ends with the Prime Minister responding on the police station.

Ms Costigan has been the MP for Ealing Southall since July 2024 and serves as a government assistant whip. In earlier written parliamentary questions she has pressed the Home Office on antisocial behaviour and drug dealing in residential areas.

A long-running local issue

The future of Southall police station has been a local concern for years. The front counter was closed to the public first, and in 2017 plans to close the building altogether came forward under a review of the Metropolitan Police's property.

In July 2017 an early day motion was tabled in Parliament opposing the closure. It noted that the Met's own equality impact assessment accepted the move would hit some groups harder than others, including older Londoners and people for whom English is a second language.

Local opposition councillors have also called for the Ealing and Southall stations to reopen. In 2024 the Liberal Democrats in Ealing pointed to Institute for Fiscal Studies research which found that more serious crime went up in areas near police stations that had closed.

Since the closure, people in Southall who need to report a crime in person have had to travel to stations elsewhere in the borough. Local policing is run through the Met's West Area Command Unit, which covers Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow.

What happens next

Police buildings in London are a matter for the Metropolitan Police and the Mayor of London's Office for Policing and Crime, so any decision to reopen the station would involve them as well as the government, which funds most of the cost of policing. Neither the Met nor the Mayor's office has announced any plans for the Southall site.

Residents can report crime online through the Metropolitan Police website or by calling 101. Always call 999 in an emergency. Information can be passed on anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.