London mayor: Halting tide of violence could take ten years

SADIQ Khan faced a storm of criticism last night for warning it could take a decade to bring violent crime under control.

The Labour London mayor wants to follow Glasgow’s lead in developing a ‘public health approach’ to stop young people turning into criminals.

But political opponents say this would be too late for the many families whose lives have been destroyed. A fatal stabbing at the weekend has taken the number of killings this year in London to 118.

The number of officers meanwhile has fallen to 29,500, the lowest figure for more than a decade.

Mr Khan said he favoured different public sector bodies working together, adding: ‘It will take some time. I know that because of the lessons we’ve learnt from places like Glasgow. To really make significant progress can take up to ten years, a generation. They saw in Scotland what we are seeing in London, which is children in primary schools thinking not only is it OK to carry a knife, but it gives them a sense of belonging in joining a criminal gang.

‘It makes them feel safer and they see nothing wrong in getting involved in this sort of behaviour.’

But Shaun Bailey, a Tory London Assembly member, said: ‘Londoners need this surge of violent knife crime stopped now, not in ten years. We need to put criminals under pressure, not our communities.

‘It’s time for Sadiq to make better choices with the resources he has, not shift the blame or complain about the funding he would like in a perfect world, because the world isn’t perfect and people are dying.

‘We should be taking a zero tolerance approach to gangs and their knife crime, and pushing for tougher sentences on other crimes that are pressuring our communities, like acid attacks and moped- enabled robberies.’

Tony Arbour, another London Tory, said the mayor’s approach was wrong. ‘You cannot compare Glasgow with London, the pattern of criminality is quite different,’ he added.

‘If the police believed that the mayor truly supported a robust crack down on real crime then the problem could be dealt with.’

Mr Khan has blamed rising violence in London on the £700million cuts to the Metropolitan Police budget over the past seven years, with more reductions expected.

He told the BBC there was a direct link between falling police numbers and increasing crime, citing a leaked Home Office report.

‘The most senior police officers in the country have said it’s naive to think there’s not a link between cutting police numbers and an increase in violent crime,’ he added.

His plan includes a review of the most serious offences since 2014 to discover the trends behind them.

The Met has set up a taskforce to target ‘ habitual knife carriers’ in hotspots, with more than 1,300 arrests in six months.

But community police teams have dwindled as robberies, violence and knife crime continue to rise.

‘The world isn’t perfect’