Met Police chief Cressida Dick hits back at Trump's comments on London saying the UK capital is safer than every major American city - and murder rate is much lower than NYC
- Trump has made series of comments criticising London mayor over knife crime
- He said British hospitals are a 'sea of blood' because 'everyone is being stabbed'
- Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick said London is safer than U.S. cities
- She said she'd be 'sad' if Trump's comments unfairly hit London's reputation
Britain's most senior police officer has hit back at Donald Trump's claims about knife crime in the UK, insisting London is safer than all major American cities.
The US President made a series of outspoken comments about violence in the capital during his trip to Britain earlier this month, claiming hospitals are a 'sea of blood' because 'everyone is being stabbed'.
But Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick today insisted Scotland Yard was 'making inroads' into violent crime, which is a far bigger problem in the U.S.
London police commissioner Cressida Dick today said the British capital is safer than all major U.S. cities, when she was challenged over comments made by U.S. President Donald Trump
The President retweeted comments about recent crimes in the UK's capital city
Trump has been a vocal critic of Sadiq Khan, calling the Mayor of London a 'national disgrace'
Ms Dick told LBC radio: 'Compared with so many cities, including all the major American cities, London is a safe city. The homicide rate in New York is two or three times higher, some are twenty or thirty times higher.'
She insisted she did not want to get into an argument with Mr Trump, but said she would be 'sad' if his comments 'affect London's international reputation in an unfair way'.
She said: 'Everybody in what was once called the Western World needs to look at what's going on in big cities and American cities have tremendous, tremendous challenges with the most serious violent crime. All of them.'
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Ms Dick said she stood by comments she previously made that the Met was 'turning the tide' on violent crime, despite a spate of murders in recent weeks.
David Bello-Monerville, 38, was stabbed in Barnet last week, becoming the capital's 61st murder victim in 2019.
Trump's state visit to the UK earlier this month was peppered with an ongoing row between him and London mayor Sadiq Khan.
Police at the scene of a stabbing in London 10 days ago, one of a series of murders this month
The murder rate in London is 1.5 per 100,000 of the population, low by comparison with the US
Trump has repeatedly criticised Mr Khan, branding him a 'stone cold loser' and a 'national disgrace who is destroying the city of London'.
Last week he retweet of a post by Katie Hopkins which called the capital 'Stab-City' and 'Khan's Londonistan' alongside two screenshots of news articles detailing recent outbreaks of violent crime.
Mr Khan has in return calling Mr Trump 'a poster boy for racists around the world'.
Mr Khan said last week: 'There are many good leaders in America facing massive increases in violent crime, they have my support to make sure we learn lessons from each other and that we work together to grapple the issue of violent crime taking place in many cities across the Western world.'
There were 132 murders in London last year, leaving the capital with a homicide rate of 1.5 per 100,000 residents.
The murder rate in St Louis is 64.9 per 100,000 residents, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association Violent Crimes Survey, which is 43 times higher than London.
In Baltimore the murder rate is 51.1. In New Orleans it is 40.6 and in Detroit it is 39.7.
In Washington DC, home to Congress and the White House, the murder rate is 11 times higher than London.
Ms Dick was today also questioned about the Met's recent entanglements with the Conservative Party leadership campaign.
She backed the neighbours of Boris Johnson, who called the police after the frontrunner was heard arguing with his girlfriend, Carrie Symonds.
The Met chief said she personally looked at confessions of drug taking by a number of the candidates, but decided there was not enough evidence to bring a case.
LONDON'S MURDERS IN 2019
Where the 61 murders in the capital so far this year have been committed
- Jan 1: Charlotte Huggins, 32, Camberwell
- Jan 1: Tudor Simionov, 33, Mayfair
- Jan 4: Simbiso Aretha Moula, 39, Rainham
- Jan 6: Sarah Ashraf, 35, Isle of Dogs
- Jan 7: Jayden Moody, 14, Waltham Forest
- Jan 11: Asma Begum, 31, Canning Town
- Jan 27: Kamil Malysz, 34, Acton
- Jan 29: Nedim Bilgin, 17, Islington
- Feb 4: Carl Thorpe, 46, Highgate
- Feb 5: Lejean Richards, 19, Battersea
- Feb 10: Dennis Anderson, 39, East Dulwich
- Feb 18: Bright Akinlele, 22, Camden
- Feb 19: Brian Wieland, 69, Chingford
- Feb 21: Glendon Spence, 23, Brixton
- Feb 22: Kamali Gabbidon-Lynck, 19, Wood Green
- Feb 25: David Lopez-Fernandez, 38, Tower Hamlets
- Feb 26: Che Morrison, 20, Ilford
- Mar 1: Jodie Chesney, 17, Harold Hill
- Mar 2: Elize Linda Stevens, 50, Hendon
- Mar 2: Jolia Bogdan, 3 months, Croydon
- Mar 3: Unnamed man, 37, Soho
- Mar 6: Laureline Garcia-Bertaux, 34, Kew
- Mar 6: David Martinez, 26, Leyton
- Mar 7: Antoinette Donnegan, 52, Battersea
- Mar 7: Ayub Hassan, 17, West Kensington
- Mar 16: Nathaniel Armstrong, 29, Fulham
- Mar 22: Abdirashid Mohamoud, 17, Isleworth
- Mar 24: Ravi Katharkamar, 54, Pinner
- Mar 27: Ramane Richard Wiggan, 25, West Norwood
- Mar 28: Zahir Visiter, 25, Regents Park
- Mar 29: Gavin Garraway, 40, Clapham
- Apr 1: Calvin Bungisa, 22, Kentish Town
- Apr 2: Hubert Hall, 60, Walthamstow
- Apr 7: Annabelle Lancaster, 22, Enfield
- Apr 8: Noore Bashir Salad, 22, Manor Park
- Apr 16: Gopinath Kasivisuwanathan, 27, Wembley
- Apr 17: Steven Brown, 47, Stoke Newington
- Apr 23: Meshak Williams, 21, Harlesden
- Apr 26: Mihrican Mustafa, 38, Canning Town
- Apr 26: Henriett Szucs, 34, Canning Town
- Apr 26: Amy Parsons, 35, Whitechapel
- Apr 26: Joshua White, 29, Hackney
- May 1: Tashaun Aird, 15, Hackney
- May 5: Constantin Sin, 51, Leytonstone
- May 5: Junior Urugbezi-Edwards, 18, Southwark
- May 11: Erik San-Filippo, 23, Islington
- May 16: Barrington Davis, 54, Lewisham
- May 23: Vladimir Koudriavtsev, 69, Kensington
- May 23: Tatiana Koudriavtsev, 68, Kensington
- May 25: Iderval da Silva, 46, Battersea
- May 26: Alimal Islam, 23, Tower Hamlets
- May 28: Ismail Ceesay, 33, Forest Gate
- May 30: Steven Kennedy, 61, Plaistow Park
- May 30: Unnamed man, 52, Harrow
- June 1: Baris Kucuk, 33, Haringey
- June 4: Adrian Murphy, Battersea
- June 14: Cheyon Evans, Wandsworth
- June 14: Eniola Aluko, Plumstead
- June 15: Gleb Stanislavovitch Zhebrovsky, Tower Hamlets
- June 15: Giedrius Juskauskas, Stratford
- June 18: David Bello-Monerville, Barnet
Britain's most senior police officer reveals she personally looked into drug admissions made by Tory leadership hopefuls to see if there was anything to investigate
Britain's most senior police officer has said she personally looked at drug admissions made by the contenders for the Conservative Party leadership but there would not be enough evidence to bring charges.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told radio station LBC such action would not be in the public interest and the events took place too long ago for there to be sufficient evidence.
Michael Gove admitted that he took cocaine on a number of occasions more than 20 years ago, while Boris Johnson said he thought he had been offered it once, but he sneezed so that it did not go up his nose.
Cressida Dick said she looked into admissions of drug taking by Tory leadership contenders but there was not enough evidence to bring cases to court
Rory Stewart said he had smoked opium in Iran 15 years ago, while Jeremy Hunt said he drank a cannabis lassi while backpacking in India.
Ms Dick said: 'We have had a very quick look at all the things that have been in the public domain.
'You have to satisfy two things. Firstly is there evidence and secondly, the CPS would have to decide would it be in the public interest to take any action.
'Of course with things being so historic, it's almost certainly not in the public interest but actually in the cases that we have read about, and I'm not talking about any of them specifically, but in all those cases there is no sign that there would be sufficient evidence.'
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She said she had personally looked at the information available and considered it on the basis of law and advice given in previous cases by the Crown Prosecution Service.
'I looked at it myself,' Ms Dick told host Nick Ferrari.
'I just said to my team, somebody's going to ask me the exact question. I think I know the answer but let's just double check.
'The answer is on the basis of what we know, on what we've seen, there is no sign whatsoever that there would be sufficient evidence to take somebody to court, so we won't be doing any investigating.'
Michael Gove took cocaine 'on several occasions' when he was a journalist 20 years ago. Rory Stewart confessed that he smoked opium at an Iranian wedding 15 years ago.
Andrea Leadsom and Matt Hancock confessed to smoking cannabis at university, but both denied ever taking Class A drugs.
The Metropolitan Police chief said she would not be making any similar confession as 'I have never, ever taken any drugs at all'.
Turning to an incident where a neighbour of Mr Johnson's called police over a row between the politician and his girlfriend, the senior officer said she had 'no view' on whether people should make recordings of their neighbours in such circumstances.
'I think it is important that people call the police when they're worried about somebody, of course. That's as far as it goes,' she said.
'I'm a police officer and we ask people to tell us if they're worried about somebody.
'It can be helpful for us if there is evidence of a crime, of course, that we're then going to be investigating, if somebody has made some sort of recording that can be very helpful.'
But she said in an instance where both parties were fine and no crime had been committed, the force would not have released the recording to the media.
Dominic Raab (left) has previously admitted to smoking cannabis as a student. Jeremy Hunt (right) has previously admitted he drank a cannabis-infused smoothie while travelling as a young man.
Boris Johnson previous said he tried to snort a line of cocaine but sneezed
The recording of the row between Mr Johnson and Carrie Symonds was passed to the Guardian newspaper.
'In an incident where we have been called because somebody is worried about somebody else, and when we get there both parties are fine and there are no offences, we would not put that into the public domain.'
