In a recent interview with LBC, Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss expressed her safety concern – or rather the relative lack of it – in the UK’s capital. 

When asked whether she would feel safe with her two teenage daughters walking home at night, Truss answered that “we need to do more to make our streets safer and one of the important points about generating economic growth is it will help us afford more police officers, it will help us make sure we are properly able to protect our streets.” She added that in her opinion, London’s streets “aren’t safe enough”.

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“I want to see the London mayor do more to tackle crime in the capital, it isn’t good enough at the moment” – the Tory leader insisted.  

London Labour reacted to these claims by underlining that “Sadiq Khan’s top priority is keeping London safe, which is why he has invested more than any previous mayor in tackling crime and its complex causes”.

„With more devastating cuts to come under this disastrous government, the mayor won’t take any lessons from this Tory government on how to keep London safe” – they added, as quoted by the BBC.

Metropolitan Police data reveals that crimes classified as “violence against the person” have increased by 7% compared with last year. The force recorded nearly 244,000 such offences in the year ending August 2022. 

Besides, London’s authorities have to face a staggering increase in knife crimes. They recorded a 10% increase to 49,027 offences in the year ending March 2022, from 44,642 in the year ending March 2021. 

A recurrent issue in the British capital is the overall feeling of insecurity experienced by numerous women, who are terrified to go out by themselves at night in fear of an assault. 

Image: Twitter (@trussliz)

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen