Prime Minister Boris Johnson hit out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan for not doing enough to stop knife crime in the city. This comes as London heads for a record-breaking number of teenage killings this year after 17 teenagers lost their lives in the first seven months of 2021. Mr Johnson made the remark ahead of the unveiling of a memorial to police officers and staff who died on duty.

       Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC, he said that the Mayor of London should be doing better.

       Mr Ferrari questioned whether Mr Khan was the "right man" to tackle crime in London.

       Mr Johnson responded: "This is not the occasion for me to give the Mayor of London one of my ritual kickings, but since you invite me to do so.

       "I think more could be done to fight knife crime on the streets of London."

       JUST IN: Brexit LIVE: EU blocks UK from rejoining international treaty

       He continued: "I would urge the Mayor to do it.

       "I think we are going to talk about it together quite soon I hope.

       "The issue for me is that it is about taking responsibility.

       "When, if, if you remember, in 2008, when we came in, when I came into the London Mayoralty, it was a pretty grim scene.

       "And, there was nobody taking responsibility, personally, for what was happening."

       Mr Ferrari responded: "But you and the commissioner were in lockstep. I don't know if the current mayor and commissioner are."

       Mr Johnson added: "I don't know about that but I will say, I want to work with the London Mayor to try to fix this problem.

       "But it can be fixed and you need the twin-track strategy.

       "You need to be tough on the gangs, tough on the kids carrying knives, and I do think stop and search is part of that, but you also need to be tough on the reasons why they’re out there."

       DON'T MISS:

       It's HUGE departure' Shepherd humiliates Rayner on Labour members [INTERVIEW]

       Widdecombe in passionate appeal to Britons to stand up to 'Wokerati' [VIDEO]

       Brexiteers predict EU will crumble over the next decade [POLL]

       In the first three months of 2021, knife crime killings in the capital rose 28 percent compared to the same period in 2020

       Mr Johnson has put crime front and centre this week as he works to promote his new programme 'Beating Crime Plan'.

       The plan would see an extension of stop and search powers and league tables to reduce 101 and 999 call answering times.

       The Government is also proposing that every neighbourhood in England and Wales should have a named police officer for residents to contact.