Mayoral hopeful Farah London yesterday (April 28) delivered more than 1,000 reclaimed knives to City Hall to protest against rising knife crime.
The former entrepreneur teamed up with Waltham Forest-based charity Binning Knives Saves Lives to deliver the weapons, which had been handed in to an amnesty bin in the borough, to City Hall along with a letter calling for current mayor Sadiq Khan’s resignation.
Ms London, who is running to be Mayor of London as an independent, said that the demonstration was “to highlight that nothing is being done” to tackle knife crime, adding that “we feel the mayor has failed”.
In her election manifesto, Ms London has pledged to put more than 8,500 police officers on the streets of London while reintroducing amnesty bins to local police stations and council buildings so that knives can be disposed of.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Ms London said she also wanted to prevent young people from getting involved in crime by opening “amplified academies” across London.
She said: “The main problem is the youth have nothing to do. We really have let the youth down. The Government closed all the youth centres.
“I’ve spoken to gang members and said, ‘why are you doing this?’ and they say, ‘well what else can I do? I wanted to be a footballer, I wanted to be a doctor, I wanted to be a musician, but I can’t afford it’. So, they get groomed by gangs as early as eight.
“What I plan to do is open, in every borough, amplified academies. These academies will be free from the ages of eight to 21 and they will be performing arts, creative studios and also sporting, to really give them something to do, to learn new skills, to get them into activities, to jump start their careers.”
She added: “We’ve got the talent in our city, why not invest in our youth to proudly represent us all over the world? All they need is someone to believe in them, and they have so much potential.”
Asked why Londoners should vote for her over any of the other candidates, Ms London said she was “not a politician” and that “Londoners are fed up with politicians”.
“What we see right now, we’ve got a Labour mayor and we have a Government which is Conservative. All they do is argue with each other. They don’t agree on anything and they just throw stones at each other,” she said.
She added: “If we have an independent mayor such as me, I will have stronger power to negotiate with the Government on behalf of the people.”
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