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Sadiq Khan has failed to lead the police – I have a plan to fit it

London mayor Sadiq Khan
London mayor Sadiq Khan

This week, I read that an 85 year old man was pushed to the floor on a bus in south London, in broad daylight, and had his wallet stolen. A story like this would have been shocking a decade ago, but sadly it seems all too familiar today.

Thefts have become an everyday crime. Bikes, phones, watches and even pets are being stolen at an alarming scale. Some criminals know full well that they will never be caught. Victims know this too. Many are unlikely to report these crimes, because even if they had video footage and a signed confession from the thief, they know there is a diminished chance of prosecution.

Having your phone stolen is not even an interesting story to tell your friends anymore. They are more likely to shrug and point out that it has happened to them several times before. And it is vulnerable people who suffer the most. If there are no legal consequences for robbing someone, then criminals will target those who cannot fight back.

This should not be happening. In a city like London, where tourists and businesspeople from across the world come to visit, we should never accept that certain types of crime can just go unpunished. There is certainly no excuse when we have the resources to tackle it. Police numbers have increased markedly in the capital.

Yet despite being both the Mayor and the police and crime commissioner, he has failed to act. Sadiq Khan seems more interested in shaking hands with Extinction Rebellion protesters and rubbing shoulders with celebrities than he is leading the Metropolitan police. This needs to be sorted out. I am standing to be the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, and if I am elected Mayor, I will sort it.

My plan will fix the police with a further funding boost, to help make the changes we need and increase the number of frontline officers even further. But more importantly, I will take action to restore the police to the respected and trusted authority figures they once were. Criminals will fear them again.

The reputation of the police has been chipped away for years. And now the relationship between the public and the police has fundamentally broken. When the police failed to turn up to burglaries, it became difficult to trust them to keep us safe. And when you watch officers on duty dancing at Notting Hill carnival, or bending the knee for the latest political cause, it is hard for people to take them seriously.

The police are sadly seen as weak, incompetent and corrupt by many, treated like a joke by criminals. It is an unfair characterisation, given the crucial work that frontline officers do, putting their lives at risk to keep us safe. But this perception has been allowed to develop, because people like Sadiq Khan have refused to step up and lead them.

We need to get rid of the nonsense and make sure the police are focused on sorting out crime, not appeasing political causes. We need a dedicated unit to stop burglaries, robberies and thefts. And we must put an end to the horrific scandals in the Met Police, by rooting out corrupt officers and reforming its institutions.

It does not have to be this way. I do not accept that crimes like these are an inevitable consequence of a growing population. It is a problem that can be solved with strong, effective leadership and with common sense policies.


Susan Hall is a member of the London Assembly 

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