Too many people with mental health problems who have committed violent crimes have missed out on treatment due to cuts to support services, Sadiq Khan has warned.
In an interview with the Guardian ahead of this week’s local elections, he said such crimes were preventable and that years of cuts had left the NHS mental health system on its knees.
The mayor of London’s comments came after a “devastating” attack by a man armed with a sword that killed a 14-year-old boy and injured four others in east London, including two police officers who suffered serious injuries.
Khan praised the officers for running toward the suspect, even though he was armed, in an effort to protect the public. The Guardian understands police are investigating whether the person has a history of mental health problems.
“We have had too many examples in recent years of people responsible for the most serious crimes suffering from poor mental health,” he said.
“I am not in any way excusing crime, but it is very clear that there are complex causes: deprivation, poverty, alienation, lack of opportunity, poor health. Of course we are tough on crime and support the police, but we must also be tough on the complex causes of crime.
“We need to ensure that young people in particular get the right medical treatment, rather than waiting years and years and ultimately having to endure a crisis before they get the help they need.”
Since 2008, the number of murders in England and Wales has fallen, but despite this, research shows that the relative contribution of mental health problems as a percentage of all homicide cases has increased.
Khan highlighted the case of Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, stabbed to death in Nottingham last year by Valdo Calocane, who was given an indefinite hospital order for manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
“I studied the terrible case in Nottingham … and how these families were let down because the state failed to take action against this person with a mental health problem,” the Labor politician said.
‘I’m afraid the bad news is that my years of experience tell me that there are too many people who should get medical treatment but who don’t and go on to commit serious acts of violence, sometimes even murder.
“I find it perverse that they only receive the treatment they should have received on an outpatient basis when they are in custody.
“I don’t think these crimes are inevitable, I think they are preventable, just as austerity was a choice made fourteen years ago, with the consequences we are living with today.”
Khan, who is running for a third term as mayor of London, said that if re-elected he would consider mental health as a public health issue, following the national The focus of the PvdA on early intervention.
He has promised to invest in a pilot project with mental first responders and counselors in 30 schools in London. NHS data shows that in the period 2022-2023, 120,000 children waited six months or more between referral and treatment.
“Not all of these people will commit violent crimes, and not all of these people will become criminals. But even if it’s a small portion, it’s a big number,” he said.
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Khan’s Tory rival Susan Hall has so far resisted the politicization of the attack, despite knife crime being a key election issue. But former Conservative party chairman Greg Handsa London MP, asked on X: “What has happened to our great capital if a 13-year-old boy is killed in a sword attack?”
Conservative party Tottenham posted a video of the suspect on We cannot continue like this.” The message was later deleted.
In response, Khan, who visited Redbridge earlier in the day, said: ‘Obviously I really don’t want to get involved in using this poor boy as a political football today.
“All I would say to those who want to benefit politically from this is: look at the evidence across the country over the last fourteen years: police numbers are being reduced; closure of youth clubs; The cost of living is increasing.”
According to the latest official figures, knife crimes in London rose year-on-year to 14,577, a rise of 20% but not yet back to pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels. However, figures also show that Londoners are less likely to fall victim to crime than people across the country as a whole.
Khan said: “You cannot run away from the fact that crime is far too high across the country. You can pick and choose the numbers you want, but the fact is that people feel scared.
“London is no exception; people across the country do not feel safe. I’m angry that the government is getting away with austerity, cuts to the police, youth clubs and the NHS. It was a choice.”
Khan has doubled funding to the Metropolitan Police to £1.1 billion since coming to power in 2016, while government funding for the force was cut by 32%, or £1 billion, over the same period. He has also invested hundreds of millions of pounds in youth clubs, which have seen drastic cuts.
He denied that a recent joke suggesting Hall should stop watching gritty US cop show The Wire made light of the situation. “No,” he said. “I am angry because the Conservatives choose photos of Penn Station in New York in their party political broadcasts. I am proud of the fact that this is, warts and all, the greatest city in the world.”