Sadiq Khan was criticised by two furious audience members at Peoples' Question Time last night, with one accusing him of allowing London to become "lawless".
But responding, Khan pointed to his record in office noting that London has seen homicides, gun crime and burglary go down, claiming that many of the negative outcomes were the result of Government austerity policies.
The first audience member said: "Thefts are up 31 per cent. Sexual Offences up 43 per cent. Robberies up 58 per cent. Will you apologize to London residents for allowing London to become lawless under your leadership?"
A second audience member asked: "What are you Mr. Mayor going to do about the knife crime in London? It is out of control.
"People are dying on a weekly basis and nothing seems to be happening. We need it taken under control.
WATCH: People's Question Time audience chant 'Get Khan out'
"People are scared and frightened to walk out on their streets now. And it's all down to you because you're not doing anything."
Responding, Khan told audience members: "In relation to any victim of crime, it is just awful.
"We spend time speaking to victims of crime - whether it's knife crime, the second question, or whether it's burglary, the first question or the other sources of crime that was mentioned by the first questioner.
"So what we've done since I've become Mayor - in the context of us losing a £1 billion pounds of funding from the government, so in 2010, for every 1000 Londoners there were four officers, in the last few years it is only three offices for every 1000 - So it's less offices per population.
"So what we've done from City Hall is invest in more police officers using the receipts we have from council tax and business rates. And that's led to an investment of more than 1,300 police officers in London.
"So we've invested in 1,300 more officers in London and this year, a further 500 police community support officers.
"Our population has grown by more than million over the last year but police officers are still less than the numbers that were in 2010. Notwithstanding that, by investing in the country's first violence reduction unit, a public health model, we've made progress since 2019 and that VRU being set up."
Defending his record, Khan added: "So the good news is we've seen homicides go down. The good news - we've seen knife crime with those injured below the age of 25, go down.
"The good news - we've seen gun crime go down. The good news - we've seen burglary go down - we need to have more progress made there.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Sadiq Khan defended his record on crime, noting that London has seen homicides, gun crime and burglary go down,
Peoples' Question Time
"And that's why the new commissioner is investing in neighbourhood policing, making sure each borough has a superintendent that knows the community well, but also making sure we're using intelligence and data to target known offenders and perpetrators.
"And we'll hope to see more progress over the course of the next period."
He also drew attention to the wider UK context saying: "When you look at the rest of England and Wales, crime in London is less. When you look at a comparison for cities like Manchester and Birmingham, the areas you mentioned, and it is less as well.
"And the context is, across the country, the consequences of austerity. But as long as I've been Mayor, we've invested in those issues and we will carry on investing in those issues as well."
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