Many Londoners don't know why the anarchy in Clapham lies at Sadiq Khan's door. I happen to know - Susan Hall

Susan Hall
Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:32:35 +0000
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Twice in the last few days, on Saturday and again on Tuesday, anarchy has descended on Clapham High Street with hordes of primarily young people shoplifting, vandalising and committing assault, with many filming this behaviour so it could be posted on social media.

It says so much about the confidence these criminals have that there will be no consequences for their actions that they are willing to create evidence against themselves.

Sadly, this is the reality of Sadiq Khan's London: a city where those with no regard for law and order, with no sense of decency or respect for others, are making it an unsafe and unwelcoming place to live or visit.

Many Londoners are unaware that the Mayor is also London’s Police & Crime Commissioner, which means he is often able to distance himself from the failings of the Metropolitan Police and the increased lawlessness we are seeing on London’s streets.

Indeed, Khan doesn't even seem to have commented on the disorder of the last few days, never mind calling for the significant police action needed to stop this behaviour.

After the London riots in 2011, thousands were arrested, with police numbers on the streets increasing from 3,000 to 16,000.

That was necessary to both deal with the perpetrators and to send a clear message that those riots would not become the new status quo.

London needed to push back and reassert the clear message that such behaviour would not be tolerated. The scenes in Clapham are, thankfully for the moment, smaller scale, but far more police significant action is needed to ensure they are not repeated - and the Mayor should be the one calling for it.

Over the last decade, under Khan’s Mayoralty, shoplifting and other so-called but mislabelled ‘petty crimes’ have increasingly been ignored.

The sort of criminality we're seeing in Clapham is, in part, a consequence of this sort of behaviour, where criminals simply believe they can get away with this sort of thing because it's not considered a priority.

Londoners need and deserve robust action against criminals from their police and their Mayor, as events such as those in Clapham show, but both are falling woefully short of delivering it.

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