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London Mayor Sir Khan has been handed a scathing takedown following a chilling new report into "two-tier" policing in the capital.Speaking to GB News, former Police and Crime Commissioner Festus Akinbusoye hit out at Sir Sadiq for cutting the number of stop and search procedures in London, amid an epidemic of crime.FULL STORY HERE.
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Now, a new report, a damning new report out today from the Policy Exchange
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has delivered a stinging verdict in its claim that the Metropolitan Police Service
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has adopted a so-called two-tiered policing approach, favouring protest groups over public safety
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Now, the report even calls on the London Mayor, Sir Siddiq Khan, to be stripped of his powers and urges special measures
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to be imposed on the floundering Metropolitan Police Force. Well, Sir Keir Starmer denied there was two-tiered policing all along
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The report says otherwise. And you want me now to discuss this
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It's the former Police and Crime Commissioner Festus Akinboussieh. Welcome, Festus. Always a pleasure
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Pleasure. So, this report is withering. It says there is two-tier policing
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in how the protests, the pro-Palestine protests, were soft-soaked versus other protests
0:50
But let's go back in time. When the Metropolitan Police took the knee to Black Lives Matter
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it was abundantly clear there was two-tier policing. Well, I mean, in my opinion, I think that was definitely wrong for those officers to take the knee
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There are ways to show your solidarity if you want to, but not when you're in police uniform
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Your job when you're in the uniform is to enforce the law without fear of favour
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That was the wrong decision. In my opinion, I was quite public about that when I was police and crime commissioner
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making sure that in Bedfordshire at that time, that was not going to happen if there were any protests there
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it was the wrong thing and I think it just sent the wrong message at that time And when we look at this report from Policy Exchange today it called A Long Way to Go It claims that Scotland Yard is tuned to prioritise the rights of protesters
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over the rights of the wider public. And Fess, is that something else that's frustrated our viewers all along
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How can people sit down from just stop oil and stop ordinary people getting to work
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I mean, when you have a situation at the moment where, since 2016
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where at that particular time, the level of public confidence in London by Londoners in the police was about 69 percent
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This has now plummeted to 45 percent. That has got to send his racing in Mopac, in the Mayor's Office for Police and Crime and for the mayor as well
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and indeed for the commissioner. Now, I know some absolutely amazing police officers in the Met
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They do a great job. They really want to protect their communities. However, when you've got this level of issues
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someone's going to be asking the question, why is this happening and why now
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The report concludes that the forces of law and order have lost control of the streets and yielded control to the mob
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They're particularly here talking about the pro-Palestine protests and they claim in this report that the police force
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appeared to favour Muslims over Jews. I mean, this has been a constant issue
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that people have been raising all the time. I think there is some credence, some of that
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some of some of that some of those claims but look like I said before and I
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say again policing is a very very difficult job and you know you never gonna win for even trying but at least you got to try and address the perception of being biased And the way you do that is not by gaslighting people and telling them that you know they just making up stuff or they scaremongering and trying to divide communities
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Actually sit with the people who are raising these issues and try to see things from their point of view
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I think that is the job of a mayor, not to pick sides. You have got to listen to people who are raising very legitimate concerns and try to address those
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Now, Festus, you mentioned there the mayor of London. A lot of people might not know watching this show
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but the mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, is the de facto police and crime commissioner
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He's in charge of law and order when it suits him, but not when it doesn't
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But this report specifically is withering about his politically motivated choice, as this report concludes, to cut back on stop and search
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It says that that's had a catastrophic impact on the fight against crime
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Is Sadiq Khan responsible for that? So you are right. The mayor of London is the police and crime commissioner for London
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So it was my equivalent, effectively, in another part when it comes to policing
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The reality is this. You are not going to keep people safer if you as a mayor with political responsibility and oversight of policing
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you're pretty much telling the police to stop doing stopping search or to reduce stopping search
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During my term, I'm proud to say that we actually doubled stopping search
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Overall crime fell and the amount of people who were being arrested for carrying weapons that also increased The thing is in London the stopping surge between 2016 and 2024 has more than halved in terms of the prevalence of those
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Over the same period, knife crime has increased. On a positive side, in the last 12 months or so
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homicides have fallen in London and the amount of violent offending has fallen
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But if you look at the longer-term trend, it ain't good at all. And stopping surge, done properly, is an amazing tool for keeping people safe
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and we need to see more of it being done in London for sure. Festus, you're always channeling Common Sense
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It's a pleasure to have your company in the studio once again. Thank you very much for joining us
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Now, a couple of rights of reply to readouts here. The Metropolitan Commander Hayley Stewart has told GB News this
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Our new Met for London plan is delivering significant improvements on the issues that matter most to our communities
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and crime is falling across London. Despite a £260 million funding gap and amid a shrinking Met
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We are protecting neighbourhood policing, response policing and public protection so we can be there where and when the public needs us
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Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London has told GB News this. Nothing is more important to the mayor than keeping London safe
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And he continues to lead the way by being tough on crime with a record £1.16 billion support for the police this year alone
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and tough on the complex cause of the crime through the country's first violence reduction unit
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which is leading an approach rooted in prevention and also in intervention
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