Sir Sadiq Khan, as we may soon call him, is reportedly set to become the first to be knighted among the trio of men to have taken office as Mayor of London. There have been no such gongs for his predecessors Boris Johnson, who oversaw the 2012 Olympics and his eponymous bike hire scheme, or Ken Livingstone, who introduced the Oyster card and, rather more controversially, the Congestion Charge.
So what sets Khan apart? From his humble beginnings in Tooting, where his father worked as a bus driver and his mother a seamstress, the Londoner has certainly broken many a glass ceiling en route to his celebrated achievement of becoming the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital. But, since his first election in 2016, does his record in the role stand up to scrutiny?
It’s fair to say the capital does not feel in its prime right now – and the statistics don’t make for great reading. Violence is soaring, with knife crime rising nearly every year. It’s spilling on to public transport too, where anti-social behaviour on the underground has shot up. On the road, the 20mph roll out appears to have only increased congestion, while nights out just aren’t what they used to be.
The Telegraph has taken a closer look at five key issues facing the capital.
Violent crime
Khan was accused of having “completely lost control” of the capital’s streets by the families of young people killed in London earlier this year. Under his watch, violent crime has soared 30 per cent from 190,000 incidents in 2016, when he first came to power, to 250,000 this past year. Knife attacks have been a particular problem – rising every year during the same time period, only dropping in 2020 as a result of Covid lockdowns. This year, Khan outlined plans to tackle the problem by expanding neighbourhood policing and funding 500 additional Community Support Officers across London.
Jen Lock, an anti-knife crime campaigner for the past eight years and founder of Lives not Knives in Ealing, west London, says: “It’s got so much worse. There were two stabbings last night near me, one involved four people with knives, and another the night before. It’s part of the school uniform now – you pick up your bag, you pick up your knife. Everyone’s got so desensitised to it.”
Anti-social behaviour on the Tube
With crime rates surging across the capital since the pandemic, it’s unsurprisingly made its way onto the London Underground too. The total number of offences shot up 56 per cent between 2022 to 2023, while the crime rate per million passenger journeys now stands at 18.6 – up by a third. According to the TfL’s latest Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour report, a third of Londoners have felt worried about personal security on public transport in the last three months. Videos on social media reveal brawls breaking out on the tube on Saturday nights, and this summer a 28-year-old man died after being assaulted on a Thursday evening at Southwark station. Admitting in March that the figures were “too high”, Khan blamed the Conservatives for cutting policing budgets while in government over the past 14 years. He said he would invest in putting 2,500 officers on public transport.
Abby Tearle, a lawyer who has lived in east London for eight years, says: “I’ve had a few bad incidents. One time, on the Tube in the morning rush hour, a man started leaning towards me, locking eyes and biting at the air really dramatically. It was super creepy and I was only able to get away at the next stop. In April, a drunk guy followed a trans woman onto the overground and started verbally abusing her. A few of us had to intervene and it got really heated. But even though it was an obvious altercation, with people shouting and gesturing, no staff appeared despite it going on for 15 minutes.
“It feels like it’s probably getting worse, but you rarely see anyone around to help. You’re not allowed to drink on the Tube but people do it all the time and no one enforces it. You just hear a disembodied voice from the driver – and what are they going to do? Realistically, the key change would be more staff present to help.”
Road congestion
Every bus passenger and motorist will know the pain of sitting in London traffic at rush hour. The capital’s roads are the most congested in Europe – and the third worst in the world, according to the Inrix global traffic scorecard for 2023.
And it’s only getting worse. The average delay on major A-roads and motorways across Greater London has shot up by a quarter since 2021, according to DfT figures. It now stands at 15.9 seconds per mile travelled. The rise can’t be blamed on the increase in vehicles on the road either – which rose by just 3.8 per cent in contrast. Instead, a major reason is likely to be Khan’s widespread rollout of 20mph zones, with average speeds on local A-roads across London dropping 5.5 per cent to just 13.8mph last year. Transport for London has defended the 20mph zones, claiming they save lives.
Michael Regan, a charity fundraiser who lives in Forest Hill, south London, with his wife and newborn baby, says: “We live by the South Circular. It’s an A-road and a dual carriageway through large sections of it – but it’s 20mph! The congestion is so bad, which is worse for emissions.
“I just don’t understand what it’s trying to achieve. Is it about safety? If someone is going to drive at a crazy speed they are going to do it whether it’s a 20 or 30mph speed limit. It could be argued it’s actually dangerous – I’ve seen people drive onto the pavements to get round congestion when there are temporary lights as well.”
Nightlife
Nightlife in London is dying. Go out to Greek Street in Soho on a weekday evening and it has nowhere near the buzz it once did, with restaurants and bars kicking punters out earlier and earlier. Overall, the number of pubs, bars and clubs holding a 24-hour alcohol licence in the capital has fallen by two thirds in two years — from 183 in March 2022 to 58 in March 2024. Most of the fall in 24-hour venues was seen in the borough of Westminster, which hosts Soho, but there were notable falls in Lambeth and Greenwich too. In October, Khan’s controversial “night tsar”, Amy Lamé, who was paid over £130,000 a year but failed to stem the closure of nightlife venues, left her role and has not since been replaced. The Mayor’s office has previously acknowledged that the night-time industry is facing huge challenges in the wake of the Covid pandemic, ongoing staff shortages and increased costs and has said it was working with the industry to negotiate the challenges.
Ash Clarke, owner of cocktail bar Knowhere Special in Kentish Town, says: “London’s nightlife is stuck in the past; we have archaic licencing laws. We’re a small independent bar and were previously open six days a week, which the local footfall could support. But after Covid we had to condense it into three or four days, due to wage and energy costs. This is definitely the view of a lot of business owners in London.”
Taxes
Londoners have seen a 71 per cent surge in charges under a so-called “Sadiq stealth tax” during his time in office. The levy, known as the “mayoral precept”, is charged on top of council tax and goes into the kitty for various London-wide projects. Since Khan became Mayor, his office’s precept has increased by an average of just under 7 per cent per year – taking the average cost per household from £276 in 2016 to £471 this current financial year. Khan has defended rate rises as necessary due to a “lack of government funding” for the Metropolitan Police, fire brigade and TfL.
Andrew Akuffo, a marketing consultant from east London, says: “I know about it because I’m a politics nerd – I listen to LBC all the time – but I don’t think everyone would. It would be good to have some more accountability on it – where is it going exactly? At the moment it’s all just bundled up with various taxes I don’t want to pay.
“In terms of it increasing every year, I’ve certainly seen no benefit from this – not in any way. But that’s heavily caveated with the fact that I think the London Mayor is only a step up from a ceremonial position anyway. What could he actually do to affect any proper change?”
A spokesperson for the Mayor said: “The Mayor continues to build a fairer, safer and greener London for everyone. He’s started a record number of new affordable homes, provided free schools meals for children at every state primary school in the capital, and taken bold action to clean up the air Londoners breathe. The Elizabeth Line also continues to be a huge success.
“Despite the huge cuts to policing from the last Government, the Mayor has invested record amounts in front-line policing, in addition to tackling the complex causes of crime.”
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