London’s mayor and police chief have used a drop in recorded street crime to reassure tourists the city is safe and counter an online narrative depicting Britain’s capital as a lawless dystopia.
The city’s Metropolitan Police force said “neighbourhood crime”, a category that includes phone theft, pickpocketing, residential burglary and vehicle crime, fell 14 per cent in the year to June. In Westminster borough – home to tourist magnets including Parliament, Soho and Leicester Square – those crimes fell by more than a third, and they were down by a quarter in neighbouring Camden, another tourist hotspot.
Yet Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Thursday that in the past two years “we’ve seen a 200 per cent increase in stories on social media about London being in quote unquote ‘decline’ or London being dangerous”. Those claims have mushroomed on social media and have been echoed by right-leaning politicians, often tied to anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim views.
Khan blames an online “outrage economy” that monetises negativity.
A big chunk of that online ire is aimed at London’s first Muslim mayor. Khan, who has led London since 2016, has been the target of insults from X owner Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump, who has called him a “stone-cold loser” and a “terrible, terrible mayor”.
“We know there are bot farms making money from negative stories about London,” Khan told Associated Press. “We know that there are state actors in Russia and China and Maga-backed influencers in the USA who want to do London down. Why? Because we’re liberal, we’re progressive, we are multicultural and we’re incredibly successful.