London mayor Sadiq Khan

ELECTION fever cannot exactly be said to be gripping the hearts and minds of Londoners yet, but in May we will be heading to the polls to elect the next Mayor for our city.

It is easy to lay the blame for shocking knife attacks, like the two we have seen this week in Camden at the door of City Hall and Sadiq Khan, (Police name Harry Pitman as 16-year-old killed in Primrose Hill stabbing and Police name Abbey Estate knife victim as Ahmed Jama).

He was being challenged over the blowing up of millions of pounds of fireworks on the night of Harry Pitman’s death.

One set of stats show that knife killings in the capital were down by 16 per cent in 2023 compared with the previous year. Another shows how teenage knife deaths have risen and attempted knife murders have also shown a marked rise.

The figures can be twisted to blame one politician or another. The reality is that few people can offer a practical solution to knife crime, which has become so entrenched in London over the years that many people no longer bat an eyelid over it.

Some argue for stricter sentences and tougher penalties for carrying weapons. Others look to the root causes of anger in young men, like unfit housing and under-funded education.

While the attention of the mass media has been focused on the Harry’s death in Primrose Hill, another man was knifed to death in our neighbourhood.

Ahmed Jama’s death in Kilburn has gone barely noticed by the wider public, and even residents on the estate appeared relatively unsurprised about it. Just another percentage notch in the crime statistics, he has almost been a forgotten man.

For many people it is an automatic response that the knife crime buck stops with the Mayor. And while it is not as if Mr Khan can just press a button and stop the killings, we ask whether our seemingly untouchable Mayor of London has ever made a meaningful response to any of the murders on our doorsteps?

This week he offered the usual politico-bot platitudes about the “tragic incident” and described himself as “truly devastated”. There was no statement of intent for the coming year and nothing to say about the death of Mr Jama this week.

The public does not care about political leaders’ perception of what is tragic or assertions of their own devastation. They want them to map a way out of the mess that the city is in.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing this year if our mayoral candidates made some clear statements about how life in London will improve if they are voted in?

Mr Khan is odds on to secure another term. The Tories have picked an uninspiring candidate. Don’t hold your breath for any serious debate.