Watch as Westminster City Councillor Laila Cunningham confronts Sadiq Khan after new figures exposed London’s staggering levels of knife crime.
Cunningham, who recently defected to Reform UK from the Conservative Party, was dismissed by the Mayor of London.
Khan told Cunningham to “say hello to Nigel [Farage]” during the brief exchange, but would not respond directly to her questions.
She told him knife crime has risen by 60 per cent over the past two years and he “doesn’t care”.
X / REFORM UK
|Sadiq Khan did not appear best pleased to see Cunningham
“Nothing to say? Nothing to say about knife crime going up? 81,000 phones stolen as well, you don’t care?”, she probed.
“Say hello to Nigel”, was his only response as he continued onward with an entourage that included Metropolitan Police Chief Mark Rowley.
As he walks past The Devonshire pub in Soho, boos can be heard from punters making their disapproval for the mayor known.
Cunningham then asked whether he would consider Nigel Farage’s debate challenge.
X / REFORM UK
|Boos could be heard as Khan walked past The Devonshire pub
The Reform UK leader announced this week on social media he was “challenging Sadiq Khan to a debate on crime in London”, stating the capital has become “lawless under his watch”.
A spokesman for Khan dismissed the invitation to debate as a “political stunt” and he was “too busy working for Londoners to get crime down” to take part.
Cunningham said: “I asked him and he wouldn’t speak to me about a 60 per cent increase in knife crime in our city in two years.
“He wouldn’t bother. I asked him if he would consider a debate with Nigel Farage about London’s abysmal crime rate, let’s see.”
X / REFORM UK
|Sadiq Khan said 'say hello to Nigel'
A report has revealed the staggering extent of knife crime in London with an 86 per cent uptick in a decade.
The number of offences surged by 58 per cent in the three years between 2021 and 2024.
It is also claimed that offenders are being let off lightly with over 4,500 offenders walking free from court last year.
The Office for National Statistics found this week that London accounted for nearly a third of all knife crime nationwide.
While knife crime nationwide dropped by one per cent last year, it rose by nine per cent in London, with 16,297 offences recorded.
The Policy Exchange report called for a significant increase in the use of stop-and-search to tackle the crisis.
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “Nothing is more important to the Mayor than keeping Londoners safe and he is determined to continue leading from the front to build a safer London for all.
“Thanks to the hard work of the Met Police and partners, homicides, gun crime with lethal barrel discharges, knife crime with injury and burglary are all down since 2016 and last year teen murders were the lowest they’ve been in over a decade.
“The latest ONS stats also show that overall, the violent crime with injury rate is lower in London than in the rest of England and Wales.
“Record funding from the Mayor and an enhanced approach to neighbourhood policing in the West End has led to personal robberies falling by 20 per cent and violence with injury reducing by 25 per cent in the last year.
“The Mayor is determined to build on this progress – his record £1.16bn funding has secured 935 police officers and he has worked closely with the Commissioner to increase the number of police officers on the beat in the West End, plus additional police officers working in new or enhanced town centre teams in hotspot areas.
“Despite years of austerity by the previous government, this is the latest example of the Met Police and Mayor prioritising what Londoners want and delivering on their pledge to put high visibility policing at the heart of fighting crime and rebuilding community confidence and trust.”