By Kumail Jaffer

Copyright standard

Funding cuts and the effective “decriminalisation” of shoplifting by the previous Conservative Government have led to low level crime rocketing in London, Sir Sadiq Khan has claimed.

The Mayor of London boasted that violent crime in London has fallen significantly under his watch but admitted that more minor offences, such as shoplifting and fare evasion, have had to be “deprioritised” by an ever-stretched Metropolitan Police.

This, in turn, has prompted a “perception” that criminals are running rampant across the capital, Sir Sadiq said – but claimed it was far from the reality.

The Mayor rallied against legislation introduced by the previous government in 2014 which deems thefts of items worth under £200 as summary-only offences. He said he looked forward to the Crime and Policing Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, which would remove the threshold.

Speaking at a fringe event at the annual Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Sir Sadiq said: “In terms of shoplifting – and I’m not excusing it, I’m explaining it – during a cost of living crisis, acquisitive crime goes up. The previous government said any shoplifting where the value is less than £200 is a magistrates-only offence.

“This means that shops don’t report it because the police won’t turn up, and if they do, people will be let off with a slap on the wrist.”

The Mayor was asked about videos which have gone viral on social media of thieves, unchallenged, brazenly taking items from shops.

He said cuts made to the Met Police budget by the Tory Government between 2010 and 2024 – City Hall analysis suggests it fell by over £1billion, almost a third, in real terms – led to the force changing their strategy to effectively “deprioritise and almost decriminalise shoplifting”.

He said that the thieves know they won’t be punished, and so are emboldened to do so. In April it emerged that almost 90,000 shoplifting offences were recorded in the capital in 2024, up from roughly 58,000 the previous year – a 54 per cent increase.

As well as the impending law change on shoplifting, Sir Sadiq, who heads the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), said more needs to be done to crack down on “high volume” crimes despite the work being done on violent offences.

“Whether you’re a fare evader, shoplifter or break the rules on the road, we should enforce them,” he told the event. “But when you remove a third of the police’s budget and cut youth clubs, it’s a challenge.”

He added: “We’ve got to bear down on what police call high volume crimes like shoplifting and mobile phone theft. More people were arrested for shoplifting in the last year than in recent times, and I support the police using Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology to prevent thefts. I don’t want to give any impression that it’s acceptable.”

He also hit back at London’s portrayal by some political figures, including Reform UK and US President Donald Trump, as a lawless city – suggesting those with lived experience think differently.

The Mayor said: “Often, perception of crime is worse than reality. If you see someone evading the Tube, that is unfair. But it’s a fact that crime has gone down a huge amount in our city. In every borough of London, violent crime with injury has gone down.

“But people video [this sort of] crime and put it on social media – you could be in your living room but fear this is happening everywhere.”

Susan Hall, who leads the Conservative group on the London Assembly, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “A funding shortfall of over £200million to the Met Police is why shoplifting is going up.

“Khan is decimating police frontline numbers as a result of this and stretching their resources thin. The result is the police simply can’t be as effective as we need them to be. To blame the last Government – when he could have asked the present Labour one for funding – is crass.”