Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, is set to hike council taxes for all residents of the city, claiming he is “left with no choice in order to help keep Londoners safe”.
His office announced Thursday they will be raising council tax by the “maximum amount” allowed by the government, promising all extra funds will go to the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade.
He also mentioned the city’s rapidly rising population and increasing levels of crime on the capital’s streets in his statement.
In 2016, whilst visiting New York to campaign against the election of Donald J. Trump, he claimed attacks are “part and parcel” of urban life, just hours after an Islamic terror bombing in the city.
Then, in March of this year, he insisted London was the “safest global city in the world”, despite the city being hit by four successful terror attacks in just a few month – three by radical Islamic militants and one by an anti-Muslim extremist.
There has also been a record number of terror-related arrests in the UK this year and numerous foiled attacks, with MI5 boss Andrew Parker revealing in October that the Islamic extremist threat to the UK is at an unprecedented scale.
Yet announcing the policy, Mr. Khan blamed tax rises on government cuts, saying the city faced another year of real terms cuts despite the police already having been forced to save £600 million in recent years.
The mayor also said in his statement: “This year, London has faced dreadful tragedy caused by four terror attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire. The capital’s population is rising, as is reported crime both in the capital and across the country.”
The population of London is surging, expected to reach 11 million by 2050, with 23 per cent of those living in the capital having been born in a foreign country and 66.6 per cent of babies born in the capital having at least one foreign-born parent.
Violent crime is also rising dramatically in London and the UK. According to MPs, parts of the capital are “no-go zones” thanks to more acid attacks, and between May and July this year, there were 3,755 knife-related crimes and a 27 per cent increase in firearms offences across Britain.
David Kurten, a UKIP member of the London Assembly and the party’s education spokesman, agreed that Tory cuts were in part to blame, but also said the mayor needed to “acknowledge” problems caused by immigration and get his “priorities right” when it comes to spending.
“[The mayor] is starting to acknowledge that the population is increasing and this has an effect; yet, he still advocates open borders and continued mass immigration,” Mr. Kurten told Breitbart London.
He added: “Terror is in large part caused by returning jihadists and radical Islamists, which is in some ways linked to mass immigration and us not controlling our borders. The mayor needs to acknowledge this, too.”
Mr. Kurten also said the mayor is spending too much money on projects, like the cycle superhighway, which only benefit a small number of Londoners.
In his statement, however, the mayor argued the tax increase was inevitable. “Nothing is more important to me than keeping Londoners safe. The Government has refused to back the Metropolitan Police or the London Fire Brigade with the money they need and so I have been left with no choice but to propose increasing council tax to protect our city from the threats that we face.
“I’m sensitive to the fact that council tax is a regressive form of taxation – as it hits those who can least afford to pay it the hardest, so this is certainly not a decision I take lightly,” he said.