SADIQ Khan today rolled his eyes and claimed he’s done all he can as he was confronted on his failure to get a grip on London’s knife crime epidemic.
The Mayor lost his patience with a Sky News reporter just hours after the latest bloody death on London’s streets last night.
Sky News
The man, who was said to have been dragged from his home and stabbed six times in the streets, is the FOURTEENTH person to have been slaughtered in Britain in the last 16 days.
But despite the epidemic reaching a crisis point, Mr Khan insisted this morning there was nothing more he could to do tackle the bloodshed, and said he’d done all he could.
He claimed he has done “as much as I am allowed to do under the law” by hiking council taxes across the capital and setting up a new £45m fund for London’s youth.
However, the main reason for the spiralling violence was cuts from central government, he claimed.
“I’ve raised council tax three years in a row, but also used the money from business rates to invest in policing and youth services,” Mr Khan told Sky.
But ignoring personal responsibility on the issue, he then claimed: “The investment we are putting in doesn’t fill the massive hole left by the Government.”
Sky’s Sarah-Jane Mee cut him off after he again claimed that Theresa May was to blame for the senseless stabbings.
He then rolled his eyes in frustration after the presenter called him out.
“You keep shifting it onto central government,” she blasted.
“The cuts are well documented, but on your personal responsibility – if you didn’t believe you could effect change when you campaigned to become mayor, why put it at the heart of your manifesto?
“What can you be doing as Mayor of London, what personal responsibility can you take for this?”
Knife crime is going up. People are dying
Sky’s Sarah Jane Mee grilling the London Mayor
And she went on: “While you are explaining, knife crime is going up. People are dying.”
Mr Khan pointed out that others in Oxford and Manchester had also died this week but she hit back: “You are Mayor of London, I want to talk about what’s happening in London and what powers you have to do something.”
The Mayor said: “80 per cent of the budget for the Metropolitan Police service, comes from central Government.
“Roughly speaking, 20 per cent comes from City Hall, I have increased that as much as I am allowed to do under the law.”
He said millions had been lost from London’s funding over the past few years and his taskforce has made thousands of arrests this year.
Tory vice-chairman Paul Scully blasted: “Mr Khan frequently asks journalists ‘what more he can do’ to fight knife crime, and the answer is simple – stop investing in your vanity projects, reverse the 27 per cent increase in your own personal staff and use that money to reduce the crime wave in the capital.
“Actions speak louder than words sometimes and this eye roll says a lot about how seriously Khan takes knife crime in London.”
And London Assembly member Susan Hall said: “The fact that Sadiq Khan rolled his eyes when an interviewer dared to question him about London’s crime epidemic really does sum up this Mayor’s complacent attitude towards violent crime.
“It was a bit rich for the Mayor to go on a tour the TV studios this morning with the sole purpose of blaming the Government for police numbers, having only last week opposed our fully-costed plan to put nearly 1400 additional officers on London’s streets”.
GRISLY MURDER TOLL RISES
Last weekend two 17-year olds were slaughtered in London and Manchester as Britain’s knife crime epidemic continues.
Girlscout Jodie Chesney was knifed in the back as she listened to music with pals in East London, while straight A grammar school student Yousef Makki was knifed to death in a posh Cheshire village.
Mr Khan flew back from a trip abroad to Morocco on Monday – and again blamed Mrs May for the crisis.
But Tories in City Hall have attacked him for speaking £25million more than his predecessor on his staff bill – with a 27 per cent increase in the number of posts in the Greater London Authority since he took office.
Today Brits online called him out for his comments.
Micheal Morey said on Twitter: “think back to all the issues with London and it’s always someone else’s fault, he is a total failure.”
And Alan Ridgley added: “Sadiq Khan is a disgrace, he’s failed on knife crime by escaping to Morocco.”
D Williams said: “If you have done all you can and failed, then stand aside and let someone else more competent try.”
Another person said: “Please resign Mr Khan and make London a safer place to live in.”
Ministers are under growing pressure to give police more cash to to calm the political backlash.
But Mrs May has been locked in a row with senior Tories after she said there wasn’t a link between knife crime and cuts.
Bosses fighting crime demanded more power to search suspects in meetings with the Home Secretary Sajid Javid yesterday.
Home Office minister Victoria Atkins was dragged to the Commons to face questioning on knife crime this morning.
She said the “senseless killings have rightly shocked the country” and there was “no denying the urgency of this issue”.
“Day in, day out we are acting to end the bloodshed,” she insisted.
And today the PM was warned that pupils who are excluded from schools are being sucked into criminality.
But this morning Chancellor Philip Hammond insisted that forces were getting more money next month, and they should take officers from low priority areas and re-distribute them instead.
He told LBC: “Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to look carefully and say, ‘what I need to do is take people away from lower priority teams and put them into fighting knife crime on the streets.'”
The current knife crime wave could not be tackled by training people up and recruiting more as it would take too long, he said.
Sky News
“If your house is on fire, you stop painting it, get a bucket and pour water on the fire,” he added.
And he hinted that if Mrs May’s Brexit deal is passed as hoped next week, that more cash could be spent on the police.
“The good news is, with the public finances in better shape, if we get the Brexit deal over the line, we can release some money to use on frontline policing, and will have a bit more money to spend in that period.”
The Chancellor is meeting Mr Hammond tomorrow for talks.
PA:Press Association
AFP
PA:Press Association
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