By Chris Philp MP

Londoners feel it every time they hesitate before taking their phone out on the street, every time a parent worries about their child getting home, every time a shopkeeper shrugs because there is no point calling the police anymore.

Under Sadiq Khan, London has become more dangerous. London accounts for nearly a third of all knife crime in England and almost half of all knife-point robberies, despite being home to just over fifteen per cent of the population. That imbalance is the product of a decade of failure at City Hall.

In the early part of the last decade, knife crime in London dropped by nearly a third. That period coincided with a Conservative Mayor and a Metropolitan Police Commissioner willing to use the tools available to them, including stop and search, targeted patrols and visible policing. The result was fewer stabbings and fewer victims.

But under Khan, that approach was steadily dismantled. Between 2021 and 2024, the use of stop-and-search fell by more than half. Over the same period, knife crime surged. In 2024 alone, nearly 17,000 knife crime offences were recorded in London, an increase of more than eighty per cent compared to a decade earlier. A direct consequence of retreat.

The same story plays out across robbery and theft. Mobile phone snatching has become normalised. In 2024, more than 81,000 mobile phones were stolen in London. Theft from the person has exploded, rising by over 170 per cent in just three years. These are crimes committed in broad daylight, outside stations and on high streets, yet the mayor refuses........

© LBC