Knife crime rose by 31.3% in London year-on-year between 2015/16 and 2016/17 according to figures from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime. Data disclosed in a December report authored by Sadiq Khan’s own Deputy Mayor Sophie Linden showed ‘knife crime’ as categorised by City Hall was up 31.3% (from 10,724 in 2015/16 to 14,076 in 2016/17). ‘Knife crime with injury’ was up 20.7%. Four more were killed in stabbings on New Year’s Eve.

Meanwhile according to a Met Police FOI disclosure, data to the latest available month (October 2017) also shows that knife crime is up. Total knife crime across the MPS’s major crime categories of violence against the person, sexual offences and robbery were up to 12,119 offences in 2016/17 from 9,745 in 2015/16. That’s a rise of 24%.

In the years before Khan became mayor the numbers had fallen significantly – the Tories had got the numbers down to between 10 and 15 deaths of young people per year from over 30. Why isn’t Sadiq facing more pressure on this? It should really be a much bigger story…