Sadiq Khan Accepts Blame For Violent Crime In London Rocketing

7 June 2018, 11:15 | Updated: 7 June 2018, 15:05

James O'Brien grilled Sadiq Khan over his claims he's working to reduce violent crime, by telling him his promises are like "Groundhog Day"

Knife and gun crime has shot up in 2018, while moped gang crime has come into focus after a series of high profile attacks, including the one on comedian Michael McIntyre.

The Mayor of London insisted he does take responsibility for the increase in violent crime as the Police and Crime Commissioner for London - but he immediately said that the government's cuts are to blame and said 6,000 more officers are needed in London to solve the problem.

Speaking on Speak To Sadiq, he said: "One of the things that's happened in the last few years, because we've lost neighbourhood policing, that function was done by the bobbies on the beat. I've restored one dedicated ward officer on top of the one police officer and one PCSO, but we need to do much more.

"You can continue to lobby the government, as I'm trying to do, to reverse their cuts made."

But James asked him: "What does that look like? What does lobbying the government look like?

"Because I'm conscious of a slight Groundhog Day air to our time together now, because I hear these phrases and I take them in good faith, but nothing's changing.

"We're not getting any more bobbies."

The Met currently has around 30,000 police officers and James asked how many Mr Khan would want to solve the problem in London.

Mr Khan responded: "New York has a smaller population than us, but they have 36,000 police officers, but 8,000 additional staff.

"36,000 would be the ideal scenario, but any increase from the government would be welcome."