Sadiq Khan insists he has a grip on London crime – but campaigners say his words are meaningless

Sadiq Khan has insisted he had a ‘grip’ on crime despite a week where at least three young men, including a 14-year-old school boy, lost their lives on London streets.

The Mayor spoke the day after music video director Finbar Sullivan, 21, was knifed to death in front of terrified families on Primrose Hill.

The knife attacker is still on the run despite the attack unfolding at one of London’s top sunbathing spots in front of hundreds of witnesses.

Finbar’s killing followed the shooting of schoolboy Eghosa Ogbedor, 14, on Thursday, with the Metro speaking to grieving family members at his home in Woolwich.

Aurelio Mejía, 26, was the third victim fatally stabbed outside a South London nightclub in the early hours of Easter Monday. 

The Mayor of London was on a visit to The Marcus Lipton youth centre in Peckham to announce a £30m promise to set up a youth club in every London borough.

He insisted that his policies on crime were working and the murder rate was dropping from last year. 

He told Metro: ‘We are investing in policing and prevention by giving young people valuable things to do.

‘We set up the Violence Reduction Unit in 2019.

‘We had the lowest base number of homicides in London last year since records began. I regularly speak to bereaved families, and I write to bereaved families. 

‘The funding we have announced today shows we are not content with the progress.

‘Bringing back youth clubs is very important. One victim of crime is one too many.’

He said 81 youth clubs had closed in the capital, blaming the previous Conservative government for ‘starving them of cash’.

Despite recent rampages by teenagers through Clapham, south London and mass shoplifting overwhelming security guards, Mr Khan said he backed the police to ‘enforce’ the law. 

He said: ‘I fully back the police for enforcement this is not acceptable to steal from shops to threaten shop workers and emergency workers. 

Asked how the public could be confident in the police after a bag full of police guns was found on the street near the Mayor’s house in south west London, he said: ‘This is incredibly serious. But for the grace of God those guns could have got into the wrong hands. This is under investigation.’ 

Despite the Mayor’s insistence that London is safe, campaigners are calling for more. 

Pastor Lorraine Jones Burrell MBE, Founder of the Dwayne Simpson Foundation, said: ‘When asked whether the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is doing enough to tackle knife crime, my answer is no. 

‘What we are witnessing right now is devastating, with lives being lost at what feels like a daily rate, including the latest murder just last night.

‘This is a crisis, and it demands a faster, stronger and more targeted supporting intervention to those perpetrators and individuals that are at risk.’

She added: ‘I speak from lived experience. I lost my son to knife crime, and that pain never leaves you. Today, more families are being forced to live that same reality.

‘From the frontline, I see clearly that enough is not being done in some pockets of our communities and what is being done is not happening quickly enough.

‘Bloodshed is increasing on our streets.’ 

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