Watch: Sadiq Khan grilled on London knife crime

Sadiq Khan was hoping to project a message of ‘unity to the world’ with this year’s New Year’s Eve fireworks in London, which of course included the customary genuflections to the NHS, Windrush and inclusivity.

But for all the highfalutin spiel about London’s place in the world, the mayor seemed rather less comfortable talking about the situation in the capital itself, when he was interviewed by Sky News shortly before the celebrations began.

Asked first about recent figures that showed that knife crime was rising at the fastest rate in five years in London, and knife-point robberies rising by more than a third, Khan touted his ‘public health’ approach to knife crime, before quickly turning to blame national policies and the lack of public investment in services.

He came rather unstuck though when asked why, in that case, knife-point robberies were falling in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester, at the same time they are up in the capital.