Leroy Logan, Sadiq Khan’s former policing adviser, has defected to the Liberal Democrats, saying his children were “not safe” on London’s streets because of knife crime, and he could no longer support Labour due to the London Mayor’s record.
“It’s no surprise to me Khan has been such a disappointment as Mayor of London. We’ve seen knife crime spiralling out of control as his approach has been at odds with his policing manifesto. If he’d taken a more collaborative approach when he became Mayor, we wouldn’t have the current rate of deaths on our streets. It’s not just the deaths, it’s the fear that is enveloping our communities that is so distressing. We can’t go on like this. I don’t want my grandchildren to fear walking on the streets of London like my own children have done,” Logan wrote in the Daily Mail.
Here's press release on Leroy Logan, former senior Met police officer & Sadiq Khan advisor defecting to @LibDems to join @SiobhanBenita team. Also details on her 'Feel safe, be safe' plan to tackle #knifecrimehttps://t.co/SEqDw5m5gq
— Giselle Green (@GiselleG7) September 15, 2019
Siobhan Benita announced the defection at a Liberal Democrat conference event on knife crime, and slammed Khan’s “pretty shocking” responses when quizzed about knife crime on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show 15th September.
“It’s kind of the response that we’ve seen throughout his term in City Hall, which is 'Yes, it’s terrible. I’m sort of doing things that I can about it, but my hands are tied, because I didn’t have enough resources from central government'. Sadiq has wasted his mayoral term in not addressing this issue with the urgency it needs. While he continues to blame other people, our young children in London continue to be traumatised, petrified and at risk. There is so, so much more we can do,” she said.
The Liberal Democrats have attracted numerous figures from both the Labour and Conservatives in recent weeks, including Chuka Umunna, Angela Smith and Luciana Berger – who left Labour at the start of 2019 to found ‘The Independent Group’, since renamed Change UK – and former Conservative universities minister Sam Gyimah.
Here’s Sam Gyimah, the latest Lib Dem recruit, being heckled as MPs shout ‘shame’ because he is talking for as long as possible to ensure legislation automatically pardon living gay people convicted under now abolished sexual offences could not pass. pic.twitter.com/6pOqLL8FGV
— Liam Young (@liamyoung) September 14, 2019
Gyimah accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of “veering towards populism and English nationalism”, and government ministers of “undermining the courts” and “questioning experts because their views are inconvenient for what the government is saying about no deal.
“You have a government that says law enforcement is the centrepiece of its platform, and yet says in another breath that it will pick and choose what laws it chooses to respect. This is in many ways undermining key pillars of our constitution and the functioning of our democracy,” he said.
