Sadiq Khan has allowed a knife crime epidemic to spread across London and we deserve better, says Susan Hall
Sadiq Khan Susan Hall SLAMS London Mayor s
Turning on the news in London now seems to open the floodgates to a litany of tragedy. It seems as if every day it’s doom and gloom in our great City.
Nothing punctuates that more than when we learn of another awful stabbing on the streets.
Knife crime in London is an epidemic which has swept across London for far too long.
While Sadiq Khan has been busy with his ego-driven NYE fireworks and hustling copies of his boring book, the problem has continued to spiral out of control.
He’s been in charge for eight long years, and policing in our City has only gotten worse.
But, true to form, Sadiq Khan is playing his old tricks again, ducking and diving to avoid responsibility rather than taking ownership of the crisis he has allowed to happen. He’d rather virtue signal than act.
You’d expect that after eight years at the top he’d have done something, produced and implemented a plan. But he hasn’t.
Maybe he didn’t have time to do it between his book writing sessions?
In a recent interview, Londoners sat aghast at the gumption of the Mayor on full display, when he blamed the surge in stabbings on mobile phones. For one, I was shocked! It looked like the interviewer was as well.
And who can blame them – you just cannot make it up. According to Mayor Khan, the man in charge of the police in this City, those innocent gadgets in your pocket are practically asking to be stolen, leading to violent, and sometimes fatal, attacks.
This is surely a new low, even for a mayor who has turned dodging responsibility into an art form.
For Sadiq Khan, he’d rather we stopped buying phones, if it meant he had less work to do as Mayor.
He seems to be under the delusion that if your phone wasn’t so attractive, it wouldn’t be so tempting to steal it.
Sound familiar? That's because it is. It’s victim blaming, plain and simple.
“It’s your fault for having a nice bag.”
“It’s your fault for walking back home late.”
“It’s your fault your phone was stolen.”
That might be Mayor Khan’s perverse logic. It sure as hell isn’t mine.
Let's be clear: criminals are responsible for their crimes, not the victims. In London, most stabbings are linked to gangs or drug dealing, not someone having a nice looking phone.
To get a grip on knife crime, we need effective policing – it's just common sense. More police on the beat, stop and search back in place. Harsher punishments for those who carry out these attacks, and a quicker response time when armed mobs duke it out in the streets of our City.
These are proven methods to reduce crime, and that's precisely how I intend to tackle it if I become Mayor next May.
We’re only a week into 2024, and already the news feeds are flooding with stories of violence in London, and the tragic impact it has on Londoners. We’ve seen mobs attacking each other, and attacking the police sent there to keep the public safe.
One thing we have not seen? The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, taking the slightest pinch of responsibility for what can only be described as a failure to uphold his main duty - keeping you and me safe.
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Under Khan's watch, the Met Police has lost public trust and found itself in special measures for the first time ever.
Crime has skyrocketed, with London now 30 per cent more violent than when he first ensconced himself into City Hall.
Unlike Sadiq Khan, I have a plan.
You won’t be seeing wishy-washy virtue-signalling nonsense under a Susan Hall mayoralty.
I’m a little more stick than carrot. Criminals will know that law and order is back – and I will be investing an extra £200 million in the police force to turn things around, rebuild trust, and get bobbies back on the beat.
If you break the law under my watch, I will make sure the police force acts, gets you and your weapon off the street, and keeps Londoners safe.
The London Mayor's Office has been contacted for comment.