The Labour Mayor of London and a Tory authorities minister have traded blows over crime within the capital after the stabbing of one other teenager on the town’s streets.
A 15-year-old woman died throughout Wednesday’s rush hour after being attacked on her approach to college in Croydon, resulting in an outpouring of grief from the area people.
Speaking on Sky News this morning, transport minister Richard Holden described the incident as “absolutely outrageous” and referred to as for “a real change” in society over its strategy to younger folks carrying knives.
But, after defending the federal government’s personal report on tackling knife crime, he accused London mayor Sadiq Khan of failing to “focus” on the problem.
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Mr Holden stated there had been “some distractions” in latest months, specifically “flip-flopping” over the enlargement over the Ultra Low Emission Zone – a problem blamed by many in Labour for his or her loss within the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election and touted because the inspiration for Rishi Sunak’s watering down of internet zero insurance policies.
He stated: “I think what we should be focusing on is things which really affect people in the city and the Mayor of London is essentially the Police and Crime Commissioner for neighbourhood crime in London, he should really be focused on that.
“I feel if it was me, certainly one of my predominant, sole focuses in the mean time can be very a lot on crime. We’ve seen some actual points in London, notably with violent crime, notably amongst younger folks. I do not wish to see that getting uncontrolled. I wish to see these numbers coming down.
“And I think if I was the mayor, that would be my sole focus at the moment, on what we can do to reduce crime in our city.”
Mr Holden additionally raised the problem of sexual violence in London, earlier than including: “I think the new police commissioner is doing a good job at trying to turn that around.
“But I feel what it requires is political help as a way to try this and political focus. And I feel if I used to be the mayor, that is what I might be targeted on.”
A spokesperson for the mayor hit back at the remarks, saying it was “very disappointing {that a} authorities minister appears to suppose an appalling incident like that is the time for political level scoring”.
Focusing on the incident itself, they said Mr Khan was meeting with police and members of the community in Croydon, adding: “Londoners might be reassured that there are further police patrols within the space, and the mayor urges anybody with any additional info to name the police on 101 or the charity Crimestoppers anonymously.
“Sadiq has pledged to continue working day and night to end the scourge of violence against women and girls, and knife crime in our city.”
Labour frontbencher Ellie Reeves additionally defended Mr Khan, telling Sky News he was “hugely focused on tackling knife crime in the capital”.
But she stated the mayor “needs support from central government in order to make the progress that we need”.
Ms Reeves added: “We saw the shocking news of a 15-year-old girl being murdered in Croydon. There is an issue, though, about what the government has been doing to tackle crime because we hear stories like this time and time again, and yet the government doesn’t seem to be taking action on knife crime.
“That’s why Labour have stated in authorities we would make it our mission to halve violent crime throughout the last decade, placing extra police on the streets and issues when it comes to tackling youth violence, ensuring that there are youth employees in custody, road suites in A&E departments, reaching out to these younger folks and stopping them from getting concerned in violence within the first place. And we’re not listening to that from the federal government.”
Source: information.sky.com”