Sadiq Khan's failed in his key duty: to keep us safe from crime

The last time I set foot in the building I knew as City Hall was just a few days before it was shut down. You could still see the plaque — unveiled by our late monarch — proudly declaring it “the home of London’s government” but the Mayor and his entourage had moved on. A playful security guard captured the shame and pathos of it: “Opened by the Queen. Closed by Tina.” I’d always liked Tina.

I’m still astonished how many Londoners haven’t clocked that Sadiq Khan had to leave Norman Foster’s “glass testicle” two years ago because he couldn’t pay the rent. For me it’s the ultimate metaphor for his mayoralty. Transport for London was pretty much bankrupted by his fares freeze, and the golden age of investment that delivered new trains, stations, entire Tube lines, Crossrail, a cable car, boats, buses and a cycle hire scheme is depressingly over.

But the most shocking failure by Khan is on his first duty to all of us who pay his precept, which is to keep us safe. His record on crime is woeful. Shoplifting has basically been decriminalised — up 34 per cent since he took office. More disturbingly, armed raids on stores have risen by more than 90 per cent in the same period, and the cost-of-living crisis he cites is no excuse for violence.

Ken Livingstone’s complacency on violent crime was one of the main reasons he was ousted as Mayor. If Khan had a decent rival in this race, he too should be hounded out for allowing so many young men to be slaughtered on our streets without any strategy or moral drive to confront it. I know from my time at City Hall that you can cut the numbers.

The homicide rate was halved between 2007 and 2015 when Boris Johnson was in charge. In his first term, teenage killings dropped from 29 to just eight. By the time Khan was seeking a second term they were back to a 10-year high, and five times higher than the rest of the UK.

There were 55 fatal stabbings in the capital in 2014. Five years later there were 90 and killings related to gang violence doubled in that period. The police, of course, have operational responsibility but these tragic statistics are also directly related to the policies pursued by the politician they answer too.

Johnson’s decision to ban alcohol on public transport played an important part in slashing crime on London’s buses by 30 per cent within a year of taking office. More importantly he signalled from day one that he was appalled by the fact that so many young men could be killed on the streets of one of the world’s richest capitals and no one seemed able to do anything about it.

He set up an expert advisory board on youth violence, and — with no media in tow — made a point of visiting every area where knife crime was rife to sit down with some of the angry and anxious teenagers impacted. These were always difficult. The first hour was invariably a string of insults directed at him.

But by the end the young men felt they would be listened to and the Mayor had a better understanding of the issues behind the violence, as well as an even greater determination to lean on the police to up their game.

Kit Malthouse was a formidable deputy, officially chairing the Police Authority but more generally breathing down their necks at Scotland Yard. He set demanding targets and insisted that the police came up with new strategies or improved existing ones. Just one of those, Operation Blunt2, took 5,000 knives off the street and resulted in 10,000 arrests. Operation Trident took 104 firearms off the streets and disrupted 75 criminal networks.

Malthouse and Johnson supported the police in ramping up “targeted” stop and search, which inevitably led to more black youths being apprehended. Khan would call this racist, but in truth it was a reflection of the ethnic make-up of the knife crime hot spots, and indeed the victims. Johnson was more bothered about the ethnicity of the dead kids, who were, tragically, overwhelmingly black.

Talk to senior police officers and you’ll struggle to find any who believe that Khan will cover them when the going gets tough. He publicly undermined Cressida Dick for ages before removing her from post.

Most of us are uncomfortable seeing some of the slogans paraded at the Gaza protests but the Mayor should surely be clear that the police are defending the right to free speech and trying to avoid unnecessary confrontation.

None of us like hearing a copper telling someone he’s “obviously Jewish”, but wearing a skull cap to a pro-Palestine rally is a bit like charging into a Millwall pub wearing a West Ham scarf. You might have a right to do that but it’s unlikely to go well and the copper who’d have to put his neck on the like to get you out safely is surely entitled to point that out?

More importantly the police need to know that the elected voice of London will always back them when they focus on the safety of our homes, shops and streets, and that this is more important than deploying a flawless form of words to avoid offending very angry rival demonstrators. Khan has done a reasonable job of prolonging his predecessor’s projection of London as the best city on earth but eight years in, his practical achievements compared with both predecessors are pathetic. And on violent crime that failure is unforgivable.

* Guto Harri was director of external affairs for Boris Johnson when he was mayor