MAYOR of London Sadiq Khan today announced a £1.15 million fund to support 34 more anti-knife crime projects.

Unmesh Desai, Labour’s London Assembly policing and crime spokesman, said that the announcement “dispels” criticisms that Mr Khan’s action on knife crime is “limited to an ad campaign.”

Earlier this year, London’s murder rate — which included knife and gun crime fatalities — surpassed that of New York for the first time in modern history.

Mr Desai said that the mayor has been forced to plug “the gap left by deep and sustained cuts to youth services made by the government over the last eight years” by pledging money to youth, support and outreach groups across London.

He added: “The criticisms that have come out against the Metropolitan Police and the mayor in recent days are evidently unfounded, when the government have continually refused to properly fund our police, even in a time of crisis.”

City Hall says that Mr Khan invested an additional £110m in the Met — including £15m to help tackle knife crime — in 2018-19 compared to the previous year in order to reduce the impact of the government’s cuts to policing budgets.