BBC Question Time audience member hits out at Sadiq Khan

       Sadiq Khan has been accused of holding back money needed for policing in London to look good for this year's Mayoral election.

       Conservative candidate Susan Hall has claimed that Mr Khan has built up an election war chest at the cost of 1,000 lives of victims of knife crime under his watch as Mayor with responsibility for the Metropolitan Police.

       It comes after Mr Khan announced that he had found ￡151million for the Met next year after claiming the Government has been underfunding the force.

       It follows the Mayor finding ￡30million to prevent another disastrous tube strike on the eve of drivers walking out earlier this year.

       A furious, Ms Hall said: "After splashing out on pre-election gimmicks and a ￡30million bung to stop his trade union bosses striking, Sadiq Khan has nothing but crumbs to offer the police."

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       Sadiq Khan with Met Commisioner Sir Mark Rowley (Image: Getty)

       She went on: "One thousand people have been killed on his watch and for every past or future victim of crime, this is too little, too late. London deserves better than a Mayor who stashes away money for his re-election bid while ignoring a horrific crime wave happening on his watch.

       "As Mayor, I will listen to Londoners and back our police, with a ￡200million investment in making our streets safe."

       The Office for National Statistics recently revealed that the increase in knife crime in London was so bad that it means the national average is going up while without the London statistics, it would go down. Home Secretary James Cleverly has written to Mr Khan already to express his concerns about this issue.

       It was revealed this morning that Mr Khan will invest an additional ￡151million to support the Met Police in 2024/25, a 103 percent increase in policing and crime prevention funding since arriving in City Hall.

       An additional ￡48.9million, in addition to the ￡88.4million he announced last month, plus ￡7.2million following the end of COVID-19 funding repayments, to support the Met police in 2024-25.

       On top of that, there is ￡6.5million to support the Mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) across the next two years.

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       Mr Khan has regularly pointed the finger of blame for rising knife crime in London and problems with policing on under-investment from the Government.

       Making his announcement today, he said: "Bearing down on crime and keeping Londoners safe is my top priority as Mayor. That’s why I’m proud to be announcing that we’ll be investing a record ￡1.148billion in policing this year from City Hall. This means we will be providing more than double the amount of funding for the police and crime prevention compared to when I first became Mayor.

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       “The reality is the Government continues to chronically underfund policing in London so I’m having to step in and use all the levers at my disposal to provide the urgent additional funding needed.

       “As well as more money for the police, I’m also announcing an additional ￡6.5million for London’s Violence Reduction Unit so we can take more action to help divert young Londoners away from gangs and crime. This is part of my approach of being both tough on crime and tough on the complex cause of crime as we work to build a safer London for everyone.”

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