London Mayor Sadiq Khan is yet to meet any of the bereaved families in the London killings, resulting in him being criticised for his slow response.
Khan said he was "angered and heartbroken" by the spiraling number of deaths and added that criminals who use knives "will feel the full force of the law." Khan, however, admitted that he was yet to speak with any of the bereaved families, something former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has criticised the mayor for.
Khan told LBC: "No, I haven’t spoken to the bereaved families, but I’ve got a deputy mayor and police commissioner. The point is that we are a team. I accept there are elections in four or five weeks’ time, and politicians will have an attack. That’s part of politics.
"But we’ve got bereaved families, we’ve got two teenagers who have lost their lives in just the last week.
"I’ve got full confidence in the Met Police service but I’m not going to apologise for making the point of the context of the cuts over the last few years. One of the jobs of the mayor is to be the champion and advocate of our city and that means standing up for the our city when we are facing mammoth cuts."
In February, Khan promised £15m a year to fund education, sport and cultural activities for the capital’s disadvantaged young people, in a bid to steer them away from crime and violence.
Announcing the three-year initiative worth £45m, Khan condemned cuts by the government that had led to the closure of 30 youth centres in London. He said such centers were vital to prevent youngsters from being "sucked into crime."
“It is sadly obvious that this government does not value London’s young people, but I am determined to invest in them, with tens of millions of pounds for activities to support them,” Khan said in a statement.
This cash would be in addition to £7m made available for anti-knife and gang-crime projects as part of the city’s knife crime strategy.
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