A dramatic confrontation between Westminster City Councillor Laila Cunningham and London Mayor Sadiq Khan has exposed sharp divisions over the capital’s escalating knife crime crisis, with new figures revealing a 58 per cent surge in offences over three years.
The Reform UK councillor challenged Khan outside The Devonshire pub in Soho on Wednesday, demanding answers about rising violent crime whilst the mayor walked past with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley. Khan’s only response to Cunningham’s questions was to tell her to “say hello to Nigel [Farage]” before continuing onwards.
The encounter occurred as shocking new data from Policy Exchange revealed knife crime in London reached record levels of 16,789 offences in 2024, representing nearly a third of all knife crime across England and Wales. The think tank’s report showed an 86 per cent increase over the past decade.
Heated Exchange in Soho
Cunningham, who defected from the Conservative Party to Reform UK in June, pressed Khan on the statistics during the brief street encounter. “Nothing to say? Nothing to say about knife crime going up? 81,000 phones stolen as well, you don’t care?” she asked the mayor.
As boos from pub patrons could be heard in the background, Cunningham also questioned whether Khan would accept Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s challenge to debate crime in the capital. Farage had announced on social media this week he was “challenging Sadiq Khan to a debate on crime in London”, claiming the capital had become “lawless under his watch.
A spokesman for Khan dismissed the debate invitation as a “political stunt”, stating the mayor was “too busy working for Londoners to get crime down” to participate. This response came despite reports Khan had found time to advise socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani ahead of November’s election.
Alarming Crime Statistics
The confrontation followed the release of devastating crime figures showing London’s knife crime crisis has reached unprecedented levels. According to the Office for National Statistics, knife-related offences in the capital jumped nine per cent in the year ending December 2024, reaching 16,344 incidents.
Policy Exchange’s analysis revealed even starker figures, showing knife crime surged 58.5 per cent between 2021 and 2024. The think tank identified just 20 streets around Oxford Circus and Regent Street as accounting for one in every 15 knife attacks across the entire capital.
Former Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector David Spencer, author of the report, declared: “London is in the grip of a knife crime, robbery and theft epidemic.
Prosecution Rates Plummet
Perhaps most concerning was the revelation that only one in 20 robberies and one in 170 “theft person” crimes in London were solved last year. The report found 60 per cent of knife crimes were robberies, with over 81,000 mobile phones stolen in such incidents.
The think tank also exposed how repeat offenders routinely escape jail sentences. Hyper-prolific offenders” with 46 or more previous convictions were sent to prison on less than half of occasions (44.5 per cent) when convicted of further offences, meaning 4,555 such criminals walked free from court in 2024.
Reform UK’s Response
Cunningham, known locally as the “vigilante mum” after tracking down muggers who targeted her children, expressed frustration at Khan’s refusal to engage. I asked him and he wouldn’t speak to me about a 60 per cent increase in knife crime in our city in two years. He wouldn’t bother,” she said after the encounter.
The Westminster councillor revealed personal experience with London’s crime problem: “My kids were being targeted by muggers on my high street. They got targeted twice. The first time, I chased the muggers down to the basement in McDonald’s.” She later tracked the perpetrators to their estate, leading to police arrests.
Reform UK has proposed recruiting approximately 1,000 new police officers for a specialist knife crime taskforce, funded by reducing the mayor’s staffing budget to 2016 levels. The party claims this would save over £75 million.
Mayor’s Defence
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London responded with statistics showing some improvements: “Thanks to the hard work of the Met Police and partners, homicides, gun crime with lethal barrel discharges, knife crime with injury and burglary are all down since 2016 and last year teen murders were the lowest they’ve been in over a decade.
The mayor’s office highlighted that “record funding from the Mayor and an enhanced approach to neighbourhood policing in the West End has led to personal robberies falling by 20 per cent and violence with injury reducing by 25 per cent in the last year.
Khan’s £1.16 billion funding package has secured 935 police officers, with additional officers working in new or enhanced town centre teams in hotspot areas, according to his spokesperson.
Political Fallout
The confrontation highlights growing political tensions over London’s crime crisis. Earlier this year, Khan rejected Reform UK’s proposal for a knife crime taskforce during Mayor’s Question Time, stating that “as a rule of thumb, I never encourage anyone to work with Reform.
Reform’s London Assembly Member Alex Wilson branded this rejection as “staggering”, claiming it showed “tackling London’s knife crime emergency is clearly not a priority” for the mayor. Wilson argued Khan was “putting politics over people’s lives.
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp endorsed Policy Exchange’s recommendations for a “zero tolerance” approach, stating it would “closely inform my policy thinking in this area.
As debate intensifies over solutions to London’s knife crime epidemic, Wednesday’s confrontation between Cunningham and Khan symbolises the deepening political divisions over how to address a crisis that has seen the capital account for nearly one-third of all knife attacks across England and Wales.
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