Yvette Cooper must use emergency powers to order Sir Sadiq Khan to fix London’s knife crime crisis after “a clear failure of leadership” in the capital, a scathing report has concluded. The Home Secretary should use Section 40 of the Police Act 1996 to compel the Labour Mayor of London to take “specific” action after a 58% increase between 2021 and 2024, think tank Policy Exchange said.
This includes flooding knife crime hotspots with officers, and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Ms Cooper, Sir Sadiq and Met Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley all issuing a joint statement backing police officers to drastically increase stop and search. This would send a “zero-tolerance” warning to criminals, Policy Exchange said. Anyone convicted of robbery should receive a mandatory three-year prison sentence, ministers have been told, and new legislation should be introduced requiring courts to jail all “hyper-prolific offenders”.
Policy Exchange said that of the 8,207 “hyper-prolific” offenders who already had 46 or more previous criminal convictions or cautions, only 44% were jailed after being convicted of another serious offence last year.
Thugs repeatedly caught carrying knives must also be automatically jailed, Policy Exchange said, amid intensifying fears that criminals arm themselves with blades because they do not fear being caught.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This excellent report by Policy Exchange is a sobering examination of the rise in knife crime, robbery and theft offences in London.
“The analysis lays bare the scale of the challenge for police chiefs and policy makers alike. But this report is not a counsel of despair – it is a call to action.
“The ‘zero-tolerance’ approach advocated within this report is one that I support – it will closely inform my policy thinking in this area.
“Policies such as those outlined in this report have the potential to turn the tide: tougher sentences for repeat offenders and those who carry knives; intensive use of stop and search where crime is most concentrated; the deployment of live facial recognition to quickly identify wanted men of violence.
“It is incumbent on political leaders to back the police when they strongly enforce the law.
“Too often, police officers are stymied by bureaucracy and over-zealous oversight, which inevitably leads to a withdrawal from the streets – something which benefits only the criminals.
“Implementation of a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to crime requires a combination of clear policy, political will and savvy operational policing. It also requires policing and political leaders to put public safety ahead of ideological dogma on issues such as stop and search.”
Policy Exchange said the Government must hold knife crime summits every three months in Downing Street “to review their progress” on a “zero-tolerance” enforcement of the law.
And former Metropolitan Police detective David Spencer insisted tech giants Apple and Google must prevent stolen devices from being able to connect to cloud services.
Mr Spencer said: “London is in the grip of a crime wave of robbery, knife crime and theft. Police chiefs have prioritised other issues while allowing the streets to be surrendered to criminals and thugs. Political leaders have sacrificed effective policing to ideological preferences.
“We show that knife crime in England and Wales has risen sharply over the past decade, increasing by 78% since 2013-14, with 50,510 offences recorded in 2023/24.
“Even accounting for population growth, this represents a 68.3% rise over the last decade. London accounts for a disproportionate share of knife crime offences, representing 32.1% of all knife crime and 45.9% of knife-point robberies in England, compared to only 15.5% of the population.”
And Mr Spencer warned that the “failure” to deal with “the most prolific offenders” is the “gravest” sign of the collapsing criminal justice system.
Mr Spencer wrote in his report: “The failure to adequately deal with the most prolific offenders presented before the courts is perhaps the gravest sign of the permissiveness with which the criminal justice system treats those most dedicated to committing crime.
“Of the 16,386 ‘super-prolific’ offenders with between 26 and 45 previous convictions or cautions, only 42.1% were sentenced to an immediate term of imprisonment on conviction for a further indictable or ‘either-way’ criminal offence – 9,483 super-prolific offenders were released on conviction without receiving an immediate term of imprisonment.”
Former Metropolitan Police assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke said: “This important report by Policy Exchange sets out the shameful reality that in recent years, criminals have been able to persecute the public with near impunity in London’s West End.
“The police seem to be either unable or unwilling to tackle the problem.
“Meanwhile, the Government is committed to doing away with many short sentences and reducing recalls to prisons – leaving the public unprotected from the predations of brazen criminals.
“In effect, the persistent and often violent criminals who plague our streets know that the chance of capture is slim and the imposition of effective sanctions negligible. For this to happen at a time when the Probation Service is still recovering from the destructive ‘reforms’ of the 2010s is foolhardy and endangers the public.”