A new study shows that only one in 20 muggings in London were solved last year, despite Sadiq Khan’s promise to tackle crime in the capital. The study by Policy Exchange showed that victims of watch or phone theft were unlikely to see justice with only one in 170 crimes being solved by the Metropolitan Police.
The report also showed that knife crime in the capital has increased by 59% since 2021 whilst thefts of smartphones have risen by 50% since the covid-19 pandemic. According to the authors, London is “in the grip of a crimewave of robbery, knife crime and theft.” They add: “Police chiefs have prioritised other issues while allowing the streets to be surrendered to criminals and thugs.
“Political leaders have sacrificed effective policing to ideological preferences.
“Given this confluence it should be no surprise that knife crime, robbery and “theft person” offences have rocketed in recent years.”
Last year, London Mayor Sadiq Khan vowed to crack down on crime if he was elected for a third term in the role.
He pledged that a so-called “gangbusters package” would take action against those most likely to get caught up in incidents such as robbery and exploitation.
However the shocking figures show that there were 81,000 mobile phone thefts across the capital last year while the rate at which robbers and thieves were caught by the Metropolitan Police fell across London.
The report concludes: “Since coming into government in July 2024, the Strategic Policing Requirement – a document which the Home Secretary is obliged to issue under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 to set out the national threats and the national policing capabilities needed to counter them – has not, as of July 2025, been updated.
“If the Government is to be taken seriously on crime, ministers cannot only focus on delivering policies which the most vocal progressive activists are comfortable with.
“The public want and expect the Government to vigorously support police enforcement and tough sentencing against those who commit crime. Anything less will leave the Government open to the accusation that they are “soft on crime, soft on the causes of crime”.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “When people decide not to walk home for fear of being robbed and when businesses relocate because of the risk their staff may be assaulted, something is going very wrong.”
Political Commentator Bella Wallersteiner added: “Just 1 in 20 muggings in London were solved last year. Crime is being effectively legalised in our city. We must bring back stop and search.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “Nothing is more important to the Mayor than keeping Londoners safe and he is determined to continue leading from the front to build a safer London for all.
“Thanks to the hard work of the Met Police and partners, homicides, gun crime with lethal barrel discharges, knife crime with injury and burglary are all down since 2016 and last year teen murders were the lowest they’ve been in over a decade.
“The latest ONS stats also show that overall, the violent crime with injury rate is lower in London than in the rest of England and Wales. Record funding from the Mayor and an enhanced approach to neighbourhood policing in the West End has led to personal robberies falling by 20 per cent and violence with injury reducing by 25 per cent in the last year.
“The Mayor is determined to build on this progress – his record £1.16bn funding has secured 935 police officers and he has worked closely with the Commissioner to increase the number of police officers on the beat in the West End, plus additional police officers working in new or enhanced town centre teams in hotspot areas.
“Despite years of austerity by the previous government, this is the latest example of the Met Police and Mayor prioritising what Londoners want and delivering on their pledge to put high visibility policing at the heart of fighting crime and rebuilding community confidence and trust.”
