In the summer of 2021 alone, 45 million people in the UK being targeted with scam phone calls. I have written to Home Secretary Suella Braverman demanding that the delayed fraud strategy is published as a matter of urgency, but also urging her to adopt Labour’s new proposals for tougher action to block scam calls from overseas.

To put in place the most stringent controls possible against scam calls from overseas, I am proposing two straightforward rules.

First, I am proposing that no phone call made from overseas using a UK telephone number should have that number displayed when it appears on a UK mobile phone or digital landline; and second, that all mobile calls from overseas using a UK number should be blocked unless the network provider confirms that the known bill payer for that number is currently roaming.

In this way, we can make it not just more difficult for overseas gangs to continue using UK numbers for their scams, but near impossible. This would be just one step of the many we need to take to tackle Britain’s fraud crisis, but it has the potential to be a vitally important one, striking a crucial blow against the parasites who run this industry, and offering better protection to millions of people in our country.