Oral Answers to Questions

Janet Daby Excerpts

Wednesday 14th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Here is the difference: I changed my party, and that is why we stand here with a majority Labour Government. The Leader of the Opposition sits there with her party that lost two thirds of its MPs at the last election, and she is losing more every week. They are queuing up to join the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) and his laundry service for disgraced Tory politicians. Meanwhile, inflation is down, wages are up and waiting lists are down. Labour is turning the corner and changing this country for the better.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

Q4. Mr Speaker, I am sure that you, and I hope others across the Chamber, will agree that we need to recognise and celebrate achievements. I say that because across the country knife crime offences are going down. Of course, more needs to be done, and more should be done, but this week’s figures have shown that London has had its safest year ever under the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan. In fact, the homicide rate in London is at its lowest since records began. Reform and the Conservatives repeatedly talk down our capital city. Will the Prime Minister join me in saying that they are wrong? Will he applaud those achievements?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend draws attention to the important work of the Mayor of London. Nobody should be talking our country down or talking London down. She is right to say that since we came into office the number of knife crime offences is down, but there is more to do. We are introducing new powers to seize knives and increasing the penalty for selling knives to under-18s. [Interruption.] What did the Conservatives—they are chuntering—do? They voted against those provisions. What is obvious about London and Reform is that it has got a candidate for mayor who does not like London, a new ex-Tory recruit who struggled to pay his taxes in this country and a leader who spends more time in France than in his constituency.