London murder rate drops to ‘lowest level in decades’ as violent crime plummets

"The city's murder rate is now lowest for decades, perhaps centuries."

The idea of a 'lawless London' is one of the right's favourite lines to parrot, with Donald Trump in particular often taking aim at the capital and its mayor Sadiq Khan.

From Nigel Farage to Elon Musk, the usual suspects love to spout baseless claims about London being a dangerous place to live.

But when you look at actual facts, the opposite is true.

According to data from the Metropolitan Police, there were 93 murders in London in the 12 months to October 2025.

Analysing the data, Times columnist Fraser Nelson said this was the lowest level "for decades, perhaps centuries."

Nelson pointed out that the Met's figures track with a drop in NHS records for those admitted to hospitals in London with stab wounds.

Over the same period, the number of violent crimes leading to injury in London has fallen, to the extent that you are now less likely to be a victim of violent crime in the capital than you are in the rest of England and Wales.

Looking across the Atlantic to Trump's America, the contrast is even starker. Writing in the Mirror, Sadiq Khan highlighted that in August, analysis showed "homicide rates in London were four times lower than New York, six times lower than LA, and a whopping seventeen times lower than Chicago."

Khan continued: "Make no mistake, there’s much more to do. One murder will always be one too many. But the keyboard warriors and armchair generals are wrong: in London, we’re leading the battle against violent crime.

"That is no accident. After a decade of government austerity, we’ve doubled police funding from City Hall, giving the police the tools they need to go after the capital’s most dangerous criminals. We’ve also cut reoffending by tagging people convicted of knife crime, stalking, and domestic abuse. And we’ve rebuilt youth services, creating more than 500,000 positive opportunities to prevent young people from getting sucked into a life of crime."

In a post on X, Mehdi Hasan suggested the London mayor could be due an apology from Trump.

Several others highlighted how the statistics debunked a lot claims from right-wing voices.