Kemi Badenoch tore into Sadiq Khan this morning, accusing him of not taking knife crime seriously.
She blasted a joke he made when his Tory opponent, Susan Hall, raised London stabbings, accusing him of laughing about concerns.
Ms Badenoch told Sky News that tackling knife offences is a “very high priority for the Government”, but pointed out policing is devolved in London to the mayor.
She said: “This is his duty to resolve, and in my view he is failing. Sadiq Khan is failing.
“It’s one of the things that we have seen become totemic in terms of the campaign that’s taking place at the moment.
“Tomorrow there are mayoral elections in London, and just a few days ago he was laughing at his Conservative opponent Susan Hall, who brought up knife crime and talked about people wielding machetes.
“He laughed at her, and said that she should ‘stop watching The Wire’.
“That to me indicates that he is not taking this issue seriously enough. He should have been talking about what he was doing, rather than laughing at the issue.”
She conceded that while knife crime is a nationwide issue, it is “particularly problematic in London”.
Speaking shortly after Ms Badenoch, Labour’s Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson dodged questions about Mr Khan’s knife crime joke last week.
She said it is not the time to be making “political points around this”.
Ms Phillipson said the scenes were “tragic and awful”, however she bizarrely claimed that Sadiq Khan is “making progress in tackling knife crime in London”.
This claim appears to be at odds with a 20% rise in knife incidents in the past year.
In the 12 months to December 2023, knife crime offences in London hit 14,577, a 20% increase from the previous 12 months.
They account for almost one-third of all knife crime offences recorded in England and Wales.
Last week Mr Khan stood by his ‘The Wire’ joke, saying: “I’m not sure why somebody who always talk down London wants to be the mayor.
“I’ve not heard anything positive about London from the Tory candidate.”
A 14-year-old boy died yesterday and four others were injured, including two Met Police officers.
