Sadiq Khan has been accused of “losing control” of London’s streets after new crime figures revealed the capital accounted for nearly a third of all knife offences in England and Wales last year. Susan Hall, City Hall Conservative Crime Spokeswoman and former London mayoral candidate, said the Labour Mayor had allowed a “knife crime epidemic” to take hold during his time in office — and demanded urgent action to reverse what she called a “catastrophic failure in leadership”.

She said: “Every half an hour in our city, someone is on the receiving end of a knife crime. It is beyond unacceptable that under Khan’s tenure as Mayor, he has lost control of our streets to this extent. Almost 17,000 victims – people, Londoners – have had their lives changed for the worse, and this cannot go on. Enough is enough – the Mayor needs to put his foot down, stop with the gimmicks, and give our police the support they need to end this epidemic. Reversing his catastrophic cuts to the service would be a welcome start, I’m sure.”

Her comments follow the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which showed that the Metropolitan Police recorded 16,789 knife crime offences in 2024 – the highest number of any force in the country and 31% of the national total.

It equates to one knife crime every 30 minutes in the capital, representing a 16% increase in 2023, far outpacing the national average, which rose by just 2%.

London also tops the national table for knife crime per head of population, with 188 offences per 100,000 people – well ahead of other high-crime areas such as the West Midlands (156), Cleveland (149), and Greater Manchester (117).

Ms Hall said the scale of the crisis reflected a Mayor more concerned with “PR and photo ops” than frontline policing.

She said: “Londoners aren’t interested in slogans. They want to know why their children are growing up in a city where carrying a knife is considered normal in some postcodes. The Mayor keeps telling us things are getting better – the figures say otherwise.”

Nationally, the ONS recorded 54,587 knife crime offences in England and Wales in 2024, up from 53,413 the year before but still below the 55,170 reported in the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020.

Knife-enabled robberies rose to 23,305, a 5% increase year-on-year. Knife possession offences also climbed again, reaching 28,150 – almost double the number recorded in 2016/17, when the figure stood at 14,450.

While knife homicides fell from 258 to 216 across the country, the number of knife-enabled threats to kill rose slightly, up 3% to 5,979 – higher than the level recorded before the pandemic.

Of the 44 police forces in England and Wales, 18 saw year-on-year increases in knife crime. But the Metropolitan Police saw the largest absolute rise, adding more than 2,200 offences.

Only a few areas recorded significant drops – Wiltshire (-22%), Suffolk (-21%) and Cumbria (-17%) among them.

Mr Khan has previously blamed Government cuts to policing budgets for rising violence, and pointed to investments in youth services and violence reduction initiatives as evidence of his commitment to tackling the problem.

But Ms Hall dismissed those defences as “tired excuses” and said the Mayor’s priorities were all wrong.

She said: “The police need proper support, not just press releases. What we’re seeing now is the direct result of years of underinvestment and political mismanagement.

“We need more officers on the streets, tougher action against repeat offenders, and a Mayor who actually backs the force – not one who hides behind Whitehall every time the numbers go the wrong way.”

Commenting on the data, policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said: “This Labour Government will not tolerate the criminality blighting our communities.

“That’s why we’re putting almost 3,000 more bobbies on the beat in neighbourhood roles this year, and under our leadership, these crimes will receive the attention they deserve.

“We are already starting to reverse the Tories’ decade of decline on charge rates.

“Today’s figures are yet more evidence of the damage done by destroying neighbourhood policing as the Tories did over 14 years.”

Express.co.uk has contacted the Mayor of London’s Office for comment about Mrs Hall’s remarks.