Sorry, Trump and Farage – London is not a warzone: Khan
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has taken aim at US President Donald Trump and UK Reform Leader Nigel Farage, as the city has quietly reached the lowest per capita homicide rate in its recorded history.
Writing in an op-ed for The Guardian, Khan noted that in recent years, politicians and commentators have sought to spam our social media feeds with an endless stream of distortions and untruths – painting a dystopian picture of a lawless place where criminals run rampant.
“Across the Atlantic, Donald Trump has inexplicably veered between describing London as a city moving towards sharia law, and a place with hospitals like ‘warzones’ and areas where police don’t want to go. Here in Britain, Nigel Farage is dancing to his tune.
“Reform UK’s leader claimed last week that London was ‘in the grip of a crime wave’. Meanwhile, the party’s new candidate for mayor of London claimed that people pitied Londoners for living in a city that was ‘no longer safe’.”
Citing the latest crime data, Khan said that there was again clear evidence that this was not the case and that the City was actually improving in its fight against crime.
“Of course, there is still much more to do. As far as I’m concerned, one homicide in the capital will always be one too many. As long as there are Londoners left mourning loved ones whose lives have been stolen by violent crime, we must guard against complacency,” he said.
“But today’s news confirms that we’re on the right path. Our collapsing homicide rate shows that the real London story is not the one spread by loudmouths and alarmists intent on sowing fear and division.”
