He's failed in his key duty: to keep us safe from crime

THE last time I set foot in the building I knew as City Hall was just a few days before it was shut down. You could still see the plaque — unveiled by our late monarch — proudly declaring it “the home of London’s government” but the Mayor and his entourage had moved on.

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A playful security guard captured the shame and pathos of it: “Opened by the Queen. Closed by Tina.” I’d always liked Tina.

I’m still astonished how many Londoners haven’t clocked that Sadiq Khan had to leave Norman Foster’s “glass testicle” two years ago because he couldn’t pay the rent. For me it’s the ultimate metaphor for his mayoralty. Transport for London was pretty much bankrupted by his fares freeze, and the golden age of investment that delivered new trains, stations, entire Tube lines, Crossrail, a cable car, boats, buses and a cycle hire scheme is depressingly over.

But the most shocking failure by Khan is on his first duty to all of us who pay his precept, which is to keep us safe. His record on crime is woeful. Shoplifting has basically been decriminalised — up 34 per cent since he took office. More disturbingly, armed raids on stores have risen by more than 90 per cent in the same period, and the cost-of-living crisis he cites is no excuse for violence.

Ken Livingstone’s complacency on violent crime was one of the main reasons he was ousted as mayor. If Khan had a decent rival in this race, he too should be hounded out for allowing so many young men to be slaughtered on our streets without any strategy or moral drive to confront it. I know from my time at City Hall that you can cut the numbers.