London street crime and violence plummets after clampdown

The numbers of murders, knife crimes and street robberies in London have fallen, the latest figures from the British capital's authorities show.

The city's reputation as a safe place to live and visit has been blighted by mobile phone thefts and gangs of “Rolex ripper” robbers taking luxury brand watches from peoples' wrists.

US President Donald Trump even had something to say, accusing thr London Mayor Sadiq Khan of doing a “terrible job” and claiming that “crime in London is through the roof”, in their long-running war of words.

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But new crime figures from Mr Khan’s office show that murders for the first nine months of the year are at the lowest level since 2003.

There were 70 homicides in the city, down 16 per cent on the same period last year.

Figures for this year show also a 50 per cent reduction number of homicides of under-25s compared to last year, when the number was at its lowest for more than 22 years.

The city has also earned a reputation as a knife crime hotspot in recent years but the new figures show this is also falling.

There were 1,154 fewer knife offences in the 12 months to August, a seven per cent drop. Hospital admissions of under-25s for knife injuries in the capital fell by 10 per cent in the 12 months to June 2025.

In the first quarter of the financial year 2025-2026, theft from persons and personal robbery both fell by 13 per cent.

“There are some politicians and commentators who continue to denigrate London and talk our great city down, but the facts are showing a very different picture,” said Mr Khan.

“We're making good progress, but there's clearly much more to do. That's why there will be no let-up in our citywide effort to further reduce serious violence and protect more Londoners as we continue building a safer London for everyone.”

About 80,000 phones were stolen in the city last year, Greater London's Metropolitan Police force estimated and thefts have been described as having reached “epidemic” proportions.

But the force has sought to get on top of offences in tackling thieves on the streets and the gangs trading in stolen devices.

The force recently announced its largest operation yet to tackle phone theft in London led to the discovery of 1,000 iPhones in a warehouse near London Heathrow Airport, which led to the busting of a suspected international smuggling gang.

An investigation which began last December caught street thieves, dealers and handlers including two leaders from Afghanistan.

A man was charged with handling stolen goods after he was caught carrying 10 suspected stolen phones at Heathrow.

It was discovered the passenger, who was also found with two iPads, two laptops and two Rolex watches, had travelled between London and Algeria more than 200 times in two years.

Susan Hall, leader of the opposition Conservatives in London's City Hall, told The National that Mr Khan's “misleading claim” about crime “is cherry-picking at its finest”.

“What Khan doesn't say is that the Met Police have changed how they count crime, which has led to a reduction of certain offences – through accounting, not through policing – on paper only,” she said.

“The publicly available Met Police data shows that crime is up across a number of offences, contrary to Khan's claims. When the Mayor cynically manipulates data to cover up for his failures, Londoners will eventually lose faith in the data put before them because they can see with their own eyes that he just is not telling the truth.”