The disorder we’ve seen on two evenings on the streets of Clapham this week is utterly appalling and unacceptable.

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Setting off fireworks, assaulting emergency service workers, and looting shops and restaurants, the young people involved have shown blatant disregard not just for the law, but for their fellow Londoners.

Looking back on the last few days, my first thoughts are with the victims of these attacks: the families with terrified children barricaded inside shops and restaurants, and the retail and hospitality workers left in fear for simply trying to do their jobs.

The kind of mindless criminality we’ve witnessed in Birmingham and Clapham is deeply corrosive for communities. It eats away at the foundations of the unwritten but precious social contract, undermining the mutual respect we have for one another and for the rules which keep us all safe.

I know Londoners will join me in condemning those responsible in the strongest possible terms, and I can assure you that they will face the full force of the law.

My first priority as Mayor is to keep Londoners safe, and I’ve done everything in my power to be tough on crime and tough on the complex causes of crime, despite the previous government’s austerity.

That’s why I’m investing a record £1.26 billion in policing, more than double the amount provided by my predecessor, and I’m supporting the Met to get more police officers in the areas they’re needed most.

Of course, there’s nothing inevitable about youth crime. While poverty, alienation, and a lack of opportunities never excuse or justify criminality, we must acknowledge that these factors do create the conditions where crime becomes more likely.

That’s why, in 2019, I set up the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), the first in the country, to provide young Londoners with positive opportunities to prevent them from getting dragged into a life of crime. In the last seven years, it has delivered more than 550,000 constructive activities to divert our young people away from gangs and keep them out of trouble.

This strategy is working. Homicides of young people are three times lower today than they were when the VRU was set up, and hospital admissions for knife assault have fallen by almost half. Members of the public are less likely to be victims of violent crime in London than they are across the rest of England and Wales.

The approach we’ve taken to tackling shoplifting is also yielding real results. Last year, the Met’s Operation Zoridon saw 32 people arrested, 120 shops raided, and hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of stolen goods seized – the largest ever targeted crackdown on organised shoplifting gangs

But, as this week has shown, we’ve got much more to do. One victim of crime is one too many and, with similar offences occurring in other UK cities, it’s clear that this isn’t a problem for London alone. Solving it will take every part of our society, from parents, teachers, and social workers to government and social media companies. If we are to prevent young people from losing their way, we must work together to provide them with a path to follow, and a positive vision of a Britain with a place for them.

If we want to stamp out the sort of turmoil we’ve seen this week for good, social media firms in particular must step up and start fulfilling their societal responsibilities. The crowds in Clapham didn’t come together by accident - they were brought together by a viral online trend enabling young Londoners to share ‘link ups’ with thousands of other users in seconds. The police are already working with companies to stop this kind of content from circulating, but I’m clear that they can and must do more. Footage that encourages or coordinates criminal behaviour cannot be allowed to spread like wildfire on their platforms. When people are glorifying violence in front of huge audiences with impunity, inaction is simply not an option.

This Easter weekend, the Met will be out in full force across London. As ever, I want to thank the brave officers keeping our city safe day and night aswell as retail and hospitality workers who help make our city so attractive.

But I also want to send a clear warning to anyone thinking of committing crime in the capital: your actions will have consequences – we’ll make sure of it.

Sadiq Khan is the Labour Mayor of London.

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