‘Sadiq Khan is focusing more on Gaza than Londoners getting stabbed’ blasts James Cleverly as knife crimes soar
JAMES Cleverly today blasted Sadiq Khan accusing him of focusing more on Gaza than Londoners getting stabbed.
At a parliamentary lunch with reporters, the Home Secretary tore into the London Mayor for being “asleep at the wheel” while yobs ransack the capital.
He said: “Sadiq talks more about Gaza than black kids getting stabbed in South East London.
“This is our capital city and ten million people are being failed.
“He’s been asleep at the wheel.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor hit back: “These are vile comments about the deaths of children that do not deserve the dignity of a response.”
Mr Khan has been an outspoken critic of Israel and broke ranks with Sir Keir Starmer last October to call for a ceasefire in the region.
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The Mayor has been criticised by some Jewish groups for not cracking down on cases of antisemitism within weekly pro-Palestinian marches.
It comes as lawless Britain was laid bare today as it was revealed crimes for knives, guns, robbery and thefts have all gone up.
In London knife and gun crime soared by 20 per cent.
Incidents involving blades hit 14,626 cases.
And there was a surge in gun crimes to 1,208 offences.
Knife robberies were up 34 per cent reaching 8,956.
And the shoplifting epidemic went gangbusters last year with almost 1,200 cases reported every day.
Ministers were accused of letting the stealing spree spiral “out of control” amid calls for police to step up enforcement.
Figures from the national crime survey showed shoplifting surged by 37 per cent in 2023 to 430,104 offences to 315,040 the year before.
General thefts also rose by 18 per cent to 125,563 and robberies increased 13 per cent to 81,094.
Home Secretary James Cleverly yesterday insisted he was working to grip the issue and ordered cops to attend every shoplifting case.
He said: “We take it very seriously, there is no such thing as a sub threshold crime. Crime is crime.
“When people see videos of shops being robbed, it has a corrosive effect on confidence.”
But critics gave him short shrift and claimed it was open-season for yobs on his watch.
The Lib Dems’ Alistair Carmichael said: “Shopkeepers are being abandoned while criminals are allowed to act with impunity.
“Britain has gone from being a nation of shopkeepers to one plagued by shoplifters.”
Meanwhile deadly weapons offences shot up, with gun crimes rising 9 per cent to 6,367 and knife crime up 7 per cent to 49,489.
However the murder rate dropped six per cent, with 577 homicides compared to 616 in 2022.
Policing Minister Chris Philp insisted Britain is safer since the Tories came to power in 2010, citing that people are now 40 per cent less likely to be a victim of violent crime.
While admitting “there is always more to do”, he said: “Today’s figures show that communities are safer and our plan to cut crime and protect the public is working.”
Separate figures show nearly 6,000 crimes are going unsolved every day – a total 2,187,300 in 2023.
Labour’s shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “These shocking figures show the scale of Conservative failure on law and order with another steep increase in knife crime and robbery, and record high shoplifting where organised criminals are just getting away with it.
“The Tories are badly failing to get a grip on the changing patterns of crime.”