‘Let’s have more police’ 

• MONDAY saw the brutal murder of a 16-year-old child in Munster Square. It was the second fatal stabbing in Camden in the last month; he was the 86th homicide victim in London and 15th teenager to be murdered in the capital this year.

Across London violent crime has soared. It is a national scandal which is cutting short the lives of young people across our city. We need our politicians to step up to the plate and provide leadership.

Earlier this year when the Conservatives on the London Assembly proposed a budget amendment to provide 1,400 more police officers on London’s streets, I was devastated that the Labour and Liberal Democrat Assembly Members voted against it.

We could have had more police officers on the streets now but playing politics got in the way. The government has signalled its intention to take this seriously by pledging 20,000 more police officers. This is welcome news, but it is disappointing how long it has taken for action to be taken.

The Mayor of London should show his commitment to deal with the knife crime epidemic by using City Hall’s £18billion budget to increase the number of police in our city even further rather than simply tweeting condolences.

This is one of the defining issues of our time and today’s politicians will be remembered for how they deal with it. We must not let our young people down.

ROBERTO WEEDEN-SANZ
Barnet Councillor & Conservative London Assembly candidate for Barnet & Camden