LONDON — London’s homicide fee fell in 2025 to its lowest stage in a long time, officers stated Monday. Mayor Sadiq Khan stated the figures disprove claims unfold by U.S. President Donald Trump and others on the political proper that crime is uncontrolled in Britain’s capital.
Police recorded 97 homicides in London in 2025, down from 109 in 2024 and the fewest since 2014. The Metropolitan Police pressure says the speed by inhabitants is the bottom since comparable information started in 1997, at 1.1 homicides for each 100,000 individuals.
That compares to 1.6 per 100,000 in Paris, 2.8 in New York and three.2 in Berlin, the pressure stated.
“There are some politicians and commentators who’ve been spamming social media with an countless stream of distortions and untruths, portray a picture of a dystopian London,” Khan informed The Related Press. “And nothing might be farther from the reality.”
Trump, who has been directing insults at Khan for a decade, stated in September that crime within the metropolis is “by the roof.” He has known as Khan a “stone-cold loser,” a “nasty individual” and – in entrance of the U.N. Common Meeting in September – a “horrible, horrible mayor.” Trump has additionally claimed with out basis that Khan desires to carry Sharia, or Islamic legislation, to London.
Metropolis officers say a mixture of focused policing geared toward organized crime and a violence discount unit that goals to cease younger individuals getting concerned with gangs have helped scale back violent crime.
A falling homicide fee is just a part of the story. Many Londoners have firsthand expertise of phone-snatching, and shoplifting has surged, in response to the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales, which asks individuals about their expertise of crime relatively than counting on police figures, discovered total crime rose by 7% within the yr to March 2025 from the earlier 12 months, although it stays considerably decrease than in 2017.
Arguments that London is a crime-plagued dystopia underneath Labour Celebration mayor Khan have mushroomed on social media websites together with the Elon Musk-owned X, previously Twitter, and are echoed by opposition politicians, usually tied to anti-immigrant views.
“There are particular politicians, sure commentators who’ve been utilizing London as a punchbag” to suit their very own political agenda, Khan stated.
“London is, in my opinion, the perfect metropolis on the planet. We’re liberal, we’re progressive, we’re various. And we’re extremely profitable,” he stated.
Khan stated London is the “primary metropolis on the planet for tourism, the sporting capital of the world, the cultural capital of the world, extra worldwide college students than in any metropolis on the planet, a file quantity of overseas direct funding. Final yr, extra People got here to London to review or to work or to take a position since information started. So we’re the antithesis to all the pieces these nativists consider in. And in case you’re President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, or in case you’re an imitator in Europe or certainly within the UK, I can see why this can be a downside to you.”
