The West’s two greatest cities are staring down the barrel of destruction. Only one can still be saved - Lee Cohen

Londoners know all too well the cost of progressive governance. Under Sadiq Khan, crime has soared. Knife crime is up 38 per cent since he took office, with 14,626 knife offences recorded last year alone—an average of 40 stabbings every day.

Gun crime has also surged, with more than 1,200 incidents in 2023, a sharp increase from the previous year. Shoplifting has more than doubled since 2022, now at a staggering 89,821 offences in 2024.

Families of victims openly accuse Khan of losing control, with criminals emboldened and law-abiding citizens left to fend for themselves. The city’s once-vibrant nightlife and creative industries are in decline, battered by both crime and punitive business restrictions.

If New York falls under Mamdani’s leadership, expect a similar fate. His record and rhetoric signal a soft-on-crime approach that would embolden offenders and undermine public safety, just as London has experienced.

There is widespread reporting that Wall Street is deeply unsettled and fearful about the possibility of Mamdani becoming mayor.

Business leaders, such as Kathryn Wylde of the Partnership for New York City, have described a "sense of terror" in the business community, warning that Mamdani's tax and regulatory proposals could swiftly undermine confidence in the city’s economic future.

The Wall Street Journal and Axios also document widespread panic and fear amongst financiers, with headlines describing Wall Street as "panicked" and "terrified" over the prospect of Mamdani’s socialist agenda taking hold in New York.

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman has publicly declared himself "gravely concerned," warning that Mamdani's policies could lead to a mass flight of the wealthy, endangering the city's tax base and public services.

Ackman and other investors are reportedly ready to pour "hundreds of millions of dollars" into efforts to defeat Mamdani, viewing his rise as an existential threat to New York’s financial sector

Mamdani’s Marxist ideology is no secret. He has openly called for the redistribution of wealth, the expansion of state control over private enterprise, and punitive regulations on businesses.

London’s experience under Khan is a warning: with rising business rates and suffocating red tape, over a thousand pubs and venues have closed in just three years, gutting the city’s cultural and economic lifeblood.

New York, already struggling under high taxes and regulatory burdens, would face even harsher conditions under Mamdani’s socialist agenda. The result would be capital flight, job losses, and a diminished global standing for both cities.

Equally alarming is the rise of anti-Semitism under progressive Muslim leadership. In London, Jewish communities have reported a surge in hate crimes and fear that parts of the city are becoming no-go zones.

Mamdani’s history is even more troubling: he has been dogged by accusations of anti-Semitic rhetoric, support for radical anti-Israel movements, and a refusal to unequivocally condemn the most egregious forms of hate.

The prospect of both London and New York being led by figures with such records should chill every defender of Western values.

Khan has turned London into a laboratory for open-borders ideology, with little regard for the pressures on public services, housing, or social cohesion. The city’s housing crisis has deepened, with new home construction plummeting and social housing becoming ever more scarce.

Mamdani promises even more radical immigration policies, threatening to overwhelm New York’s already strained infrastructure and further erode the shared identity that binds these great cities together.

Woke ideology thrives on the suppression of dissent. Under Khan, free speech has been eroded, with increasing censorship and the marginalisation of traditional values. Mamdani’s record suggests he would double down on this trend, using the power of the state to enforce ideological conformity and punish “wrongthink”.

This is not just a matter of political disagreement. It is a fundamental clash of civilisations. The woke progressive Muslim leadership embodied by Khan and Mamdani is soft on crime, ambivalent about anti-Semitism, hostile to business, reckless on immigration, and contemptuous of free speech.

Mamdani’s Marxist leanings and history of anti-Semitic controversies only heighten the danger. These are not the values that built London and New York into beacons of freedom and prosperity. They are the hallmarks of a radical ideology that seeks to dismantle the very foundations of Western civilisation.

Britain and the West must not sleepwalk into this future. The evidence from London is clear: radical progressive leadership brings crime, economic decline, social division, and the erosion of fundamental freedoms.

New York must not repeat these mistakes. We must demand leaders who will restore order, defend our communities, champion enterprise, enforce sensible immigration, and protect free speech.