There have been 116 violent deaths in London so far this year
Piers Morgan attacked London Mayor Sadiq Khan's record on knife crime during a tense appearance on
Good Morning Britain on Monday morning.
The tough questioning came
in the wake of four people being fatally stabbed in the capital over a five day period, with a total of 116 violent deaths in London so far this year.
Morgan criticised Khan’s record on knife crime, telling he was “passing the buck” by blaming the crime rate on police cuts.
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Morgan told him: “You’re the Mayor of London. You are the Mayor of London. I am aware there are problems in other places.
“But, right now, you are appearing on this programme, as the Mayor of the capital city of this country, you are the Mayor of London and this is a problem.
“You talk a big game about being tough on violence about reducing violent crime, it is increasing.
“To simply say it took ten years in Glasgow, we can’t wait ten years for you to get your ducks in a row and stop these stabbings, we need more immediate action now.
“The question is, what are you actually going to do? Actually going to do to stop this tidal wave of stabbings, stabbing deaths, because it is out of control. You know it and we know it."
London Mayor Khan replied: “We have fewer than 30,000 officers, fewer than 30,000 working extremely hard.
“It may be no consolation to the victims of crime and I am extremely sorry to any victim of crime.
“Even you have to accept in the last 8 years, we have lost more than 3,000 police officers from London. On top of that, we have lost more than 3,000 community support officers. On top of that, we have lost more than 5,000 police staff in London.”
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But the
Good Morning Britain host hit back, saying: “So it is none of your fault that is what you are saying right?
“What you are doing Sadiq is you are passing the buck like you always do to central government.
“You will probably tell me in a minute it is Theresa May because she cut police numbers, we know all that, we know all that.
“What I am asking is do you personally though accept any responsibility for the fact that these numbers are going up and the number of stabbings is worsening. Do you accept as London Mayor it's happening on your watch and you are partly to blame or is it all everybody else’s fault?”
Khan then admitted that he was the “Mayor of London” and the “buck stops with me”.
He added: “It is the duty of me to explain the circumstances around our police working extremely hard.
“The two things as the Mayor that are most important that I do is one give the price the resources they need and two I support and my backing.”
Morgan ended the interview by telling Khan: “Sort it out Mr Mayor because we don’t want to keep talking to you about young kids getting stabbed to death.
“It’s getting very boring and it’s getting very scary for people that every time we get you on we have to speak about the same thing.”
Between Wednesday and Sunday last week four men were stabbed to death on the streets of London - the youngest of them was
just 15 years old.
The interview comes as
a woman fights for her life in hospital after being stabbed in east London on Sunday night.
