No one should ever board a bus to school, take a walk in the park, or go on a night out with friends, and never come home. Yet it keeps happening in our city.
Last Tuesday, 17-year-old Ilyas Habibi was stabbed to death near Sutton railway station. He became the 20th teenager killed on the streets of London this year, 17 by a knife. This marks a substantial rise on the 14 teenagers killed last year and ought to heap further pressure on Mayor Sadiq Khan and Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to do more to tackle knife crime. Few will forget the grim record set in 2021 when 30 teenagers lost their lives.
