Tottenham MP David Lammy today blamed a ‘prolific’ cocaine market that has made buying drugs as easy as ordering a Deliveroo for the London murder surge
Tottenham MP David Lammy today blamed a ‘prolific’ cocaine market that has made buying drugs as easy as ordering a Deliveroo for the London murder surge.
The Labour politician slammed both sides of the political divide for failing to step up and tackle the dramatically escalating problem.
He said the police had lost control of the £11billion cocaine market in London and that buying drugs was now ‘like Deliveroo – they’re as prolific as ordering a pizza’.
Police in the capital were last night probing the 51st and 52nd killings in London so far this year as the bloody wave of attacks continued.
A political backlash was growing today as Theresa May’s ex-chief of staff Nick Timothy insisted the PM’s cuts to stop and search were not to blame.
Instead he blamed London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Met Commissioner Cressida Dick for failing to develop their tactics to confront the new problems.
Mr Lammy insisted the politics must be taken out of fighting crime as he demanded new solutions to the end violence on his local streets.
He told the Today programme: ‘I’ve had four deaths [in my constituency].
‘I’ve not had a phone call from the Home Secretary (Tory Amber Rudd), I’ve not had a phone call from the mayor (Labour’s Sadiq Khan). No one has come to visit my constituency.
‘Frankly I’m sick of the political football. What I want is a political consensus.’
Mr Lammy, who has been Tottenham MP for 18 years, said the police have ‘lost control’ of drugs in London.
He said: ‘What drives the gangs and the turf wars is an £11billion cocaine drugs market.
‘I’m hearing nothing about what we’re going to do about that rising drugs market.
‘Drugs are prolific. It’s like Deliveroo – they’re as prolific as ordering a pizza.
‘You can get them on Snapchat, WhatsApp. That in the end is driving the turf war and is driving the culture of violence.’
London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Met Commissioner Cressida Dick have both been criticised over the rising violent crime in London
Critics have said the cuts which Theresa May (pictured in the House of Commons late last month) imposed as Home Secretary during the years of austerity are now being felt on Britain’s streets in the explosion of violence
Criticism of Mrs May and her Home Secretary Amber Rudd has been growing since the number of murders rose.
A rise in violent crime has coincided with cuts to the number of police officers and a dramatic fall in police stop and search under reforms pioneered by Mrs May.
But her former chief of staff Mr Timothy insisted these were not to blame for soaring violence in the capital.
Writing in the Telegraph, he said: ‘The problem is not that the police cannot search knife crime suspects: when they have reasonable suspicion, they can and should.
The number of violent crimes has increased in the years following heavy cuts to police budgets which
‘The problem is that they do not have an effective strategy to deal with knife crime.
‘Part of the solution will undoubtedly be targeted – and, if necessary, increased – use of stop and search.
‘But without the smart interrogation of data, which is being pioneered by – among others – West Midlands Police, or a preventative strategy of the kind that reduced stabbings in Glasgow, we are unlikely to get very far.
‘Without good neighbourhood policing and intelligence-led detection, knife crime in London will continue to rise.
None of these solutions involves going back to the clichés of oldfashioned, rough-’em-up policing.
‘It is not Gene Hunt London needs, but leadership from its mayor and Metropolitan Police commissioner. Sadiq Khan and Cressida Dick, over to you.’
A political backlash was growing today as Theresa May’s ex-chief of staff Nick Timothy insisted the PM’s cuts to stop and search were not to blame