Scott Emery and his beloved bike

BRAZEN thieves stole a Liberal Democrat candidate’s bike while he was out campaigning in Highgate village.

Scott Emery said he was “devastated” to come back from his door-knocking session on Tuesday evening to the post where he locked his bike up to find nothing there.

“You get told to look at Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree and so on, but there is just a feeling of helplessness that you’re never going to get it back,” said Mr Emery, who is standing against Tulip Siddiq in the Hampstead and Highgate seat.

Mr Emery is a councillor in Haringey and the redrawn constituency now creeps across the borough borders in the village.

“Every time I go out campaigning, I’m out on my bike ­– up the hills around Highgate. I’d never really ridden a bike as a child, but really got into it during Covid when I would go out on a hire bike for exercise, and then moved onto getting my own,” he said.

“You hear from mates that it’s happened to and they get told by police essentially ‘there’s nothing we can do’ and a case will be closed almost an hour after it has been reported. Of course there are lots of priorities for police but I’d like to see more of what they used to call community police.

Mr Emery said it had been a mistake to chain his bike to this post

“At the moment, there may be one or two police officers that people might know but I think more patrols would help. There would be more of a feeling reassurance. I have reported this but it feels hopeless.

“When I got back there was a circle of bins, around the post as if they had been used to hide the job. It would’ve been in broad daylight, still light, but people are not going to stop thieves with heavy-duty kit if they see them. It would be dangerous.”