Far-left London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been branded a “coward” after refusing to debate Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on the issue of crime in the British capital.
Amid spiralling “lawlessness” in London, with shoplifting soaring in the increasingly multicultural city and knife crime continuing to rise, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage challenged Mayor Khan to a televised debate on the issue. Mr Farage argued that Khan has “failed Londoners” in failing to confront the crime wave.
His offer was quickly turned down by the mayor’s office, which claimed the offer was merely a “political stunt” and that Khan is simply “too busy working for Londoners to get crime down” to participate in a debate.
This comes despite the Labour mayor reportedly having enough time to advise socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani ahead of the upcoming election in November.
Responding to the refusal, Mr Farage told The Telegraph: “It’s just extraordinary and cowardly, and everyone knows that London is becoming lawless. What is Khan afraid of? I don’t bite.”
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice branded the London Mayor “Coward Khan” for his refusal to debate.
According to the broadsheet, citing government figures, shoplifting in London has risen by 53 per cent in the year up to March, the most pronounced rise recorded anywhere in the country. Meanwhile, the number of knife crime incidents rose by nine per cent to 16,344, or around a third of all instances in Britain.
The paper went on to note that during Khan’s tenure in office, violent crime rose from 190,000 incidents to 250,000 last year. In an attempt to defend the mayor’s record, his office claimed that the number of teenage murders declined to 2003 levels and the number of people slain under 25 fell to 2013 levels.
This month, Mr Farage launched the ‘Britain is Lawless’ campaign, warning that government legitimacy is waning as the public loses faith in the state’s ability or willingness to confront crime on their streets.
Britain is facing “nothing short of societal collapse,” Mr Farage lamented, arguing that a firm hand akin to the strict policing tactics deployed by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is needed to turn the country around.
As a part of his five-year plan to halve crime, the Reform leader called for the recruitment of 30,000 more police officers, and the opening up of 30,000 new prison spaces, including by building temporary jails on military land. Meanwhile, the party pledged to deport the more than 10,000 foreign offenders currently taking up space in Britain’s prisons.
The party said that it would also implement a three-strikes rule so that repeat offenders are jailed for life and to end the early release of serious criminals, such as sex offenders. For the most hardened criminals, Farage said that Britain would look to make a Trump-style deal with El Salvador to send life offenders to the South American country.
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