Happy Khaniversary! Significant Rise in Crime in 3 Years Under London Mayor: Report

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Victoria Friedman

Sadiq Khan has presided over an “alarming hike in violent crime” in the three years since he has become London mayor, according to analysis by the Greater London Assembly Conservatives.

Published to coincide with the anniversary of Mayor Khan’s third year in office, the report, The Cost of Khan, revealed what the Conservative authors described as a legacy of mayoralty “defined by financial incompetence, a raft of broken promises, and a lack of delivery for Londoners” on issues including housing, transport, and law and order.

According to analysis conducted by the LGA Conservatives, under Mayor Khan knife crime has risen by 52 per cent, robbery by 59 per cent, and gun crime by 30 per cent.

“Latest crime statistics paint a damaging picture of Sadiq Khan’s record,” the report reads. “There has been a 24 per cent increase in homicides since 2016 and the 2018 homicide figure (135) is the highest since 2008.

“Between 2015/16 and 2018/19, knife crime has increased by 52.3 per cent, residential burglary has increased by 36.9 per cent and robbery has increased by 59.3 per cent. The figures speak for themselves.”

Mr Bacon wrote that Mr Khan has been playing the “blame game” and adopting a “‘not me guv’ attitude”, failing to take responsibility for rising crime in the capital.

Writing in City AM on Wednesday, the Conservative Assembly Member acknowledged that “much of London’s police budget comes from central government”, but added that “the mayor has a multi-billion-pound budget and could move money from elsewhere in order to give our police force the boost it needs”.

Bacon noted that the GLA Conservatives had alleged that £83 million worth of “wasteful spending” was present in last year’s budget which could have been spent on more than 1,300 police officers.

Amongst items highlighted by Bacon as wasteful spending included a £10.6 million spend over the next five years on redesigning the Metropolitan Police Service’s website and £11 million for a cultural project.

Mayor Khan has been criticised previously for spending on projects that could otherwise be spent on front line policing, including £1.7 million on an “online hate crime hub”, £6 million for toilets exclusively for bus drivers, and £34 million for environmental projects.

For the first time in over 200 years, the London murder rate exceeded that of New York City for the month of April 2018, while last year the murder rate in the British capital was at its highest in a decade.

Mr Khan was forced to reverse his position on stop and search — which he claimed unfairly targetted young, black men — in 2018 amidst a rise in violent crimes, with the mayor admitting that it could take ten years to bring down knife crime again.

And whilst Khan has increased focus on ‘hate crime’ reports, London police were found to be dropping one-third of ‘real crime’ reports after a single phone call on crimes including theft, criminal damage, burglary, and even so-called “low-level” assaults.

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