Sadiq Khan met politicians including home secretary Amber Rudd as well as Metropolitan police commissioner Cressida Dick on Tuesday for a summit on how to tackle the surge in serious crime.
The London mayor, who has denied that police have “lost control of crime” in the capital, has been under pressure to take public action in the wake of more than 50 murders in the capital this year, many of them stabbings.
He told his audience at the private event, which also included shadow home secretary Diane Abbott and Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable, that while they had differences over police funding, he wanted to concentrate on the issues that they could all address.
The City Hall meeting followed a difficult day for the home secretary as the launch of her serious violence strategy was overshadowed by a report, leaked to the Guardian, that police funding cuts “probably contributed” to the rise in violent crime.
But one attendee said the failure to address police cuts in detail was “the elephant in the room”, with council leaders and MPs standing up in turn to describe how their communities were suffering as a result.
After the event, Rudd said it was “a very useful meeting”, but would not be drawn on whether she accepted any of the concerns about lack of resources, while Khan said the gathering showed the cross-party commitment to tackling the problem.
One guest at the event said: “It felt like a good show of unity, but when it comes to solutions, there are going to be problems. There’s not a lot they really agree on.”
Labour’s Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow, said: “They’re not wrong to say it’s not just about police numbers, it’s about what they do next. But everybody knows that resources would help.”
Former Tory cabinet minister Justine Greening, the MP for Putney, said: “What Londoners really want to see is not just some talking but more action. We heard a lot about strategy, but for a lot of us with local communities that are really worried about the upswing in violent crime, I think we want to hear about what’s actually going to change on the ground.”
Khan, who said he would push for “relentless focus” on prevention, has announced a £45m fund for young people at risk of getting caught up in violence and £15m for the police specifically to tackle knife crime.
Hours later, Jeremy Corbyn held his own round table, also attended by the mayor, which party sources said would help recast Labour’s policies to tackle knife crime following the surge in violence. His home affairs team, policy experts, youth workers, police officers and victims discussed measures including evidence-based stop and search and funding to properly embed police in communities.
The panel also talked about the importance of a longer-term, holistic approach to areas like housing and education, as well as supporting grassroots initiatives, to avoid young people getting caught up in crime in the first place. Party sources present at the meeting, which was attended by Corbyn’s policy chief, Andrew Fisher, said some of the initiatives would “feed into” longer-term planning.
It came as a teenager was arrested on suspicion of murdering Amaan Shakoor, who was shot in Walthamstow last week, as police renewed appeals for witnesses to the killing. The 18-year-old from east London was arrested on Monday, Scotland Yard said.
Amaan, 16, was shot in the face close to Walthamstow leisure centre last Monday, about 30 minutes after the drive-by shooting in Tottenham that killed Tanesha Melbourne-Blake. His family were with him when he died in hospital the following day. A 15-year-old who was found injured alongside him was treated for stab wounds.