Sadiq Khan responds to Liam Gallagher's criticism on tackling knife crime

24 June 2019, 15:48 | Updated: 24 June 2019, 16:04

The London Mayor has reacted to the former Oasis frontman's criticism of his response to the rise of knife crime in London.

Sadiq Khan has reacted to Liam Gallagher's criticism of him and the government's response to knife crime.

As reported by The Guardian, the former Oasis rocker appeared on BBC News this morning, where he slammed "the mayor" over the rise of fatal stabbings in the capital.

Speaking to the news channel, he said: "Every time you wake up in the morning, there’s some 16-year-old kid been knifed to death. I’ve got kids that age, out and about and that, doing their thing, living, being young. That freaks me right out – it does worry me. I’ve got teenagers.”

He added: "I’d have a word with that mayor – he seems to not be doing a good job, all them kids getting knifed and all that. The only thing that ever comes out of his mouth is, ‘London is open.’ What, open for knife crime and dying and stuff?"

Now, the Mayor of London has stepped in and responded to the Manchester rocker's criticism, telling Radio X: "I can understand why any parent - and I speak as a parent of teenage children as Liam Gallagher is - would be concerned about violent crime."

He continued: "We've got to make sure we use that energy to try and save lives in our city. That's not just us from city hall, but those concerned to help me lobby the government. We've lost over the last eight, nine years 3,500 police officers, 3,500 community support officers. In the last three years since I've been there, we've invested unlike the previous eight more than £230 million in our police from council tax increases and business rates increases..."

The Labour politician concluded: "So if Liam Gallagher and others want to work with me to lobby the government, honestly the more hands that get involved, the more voices that get involved the better.

READ MORE: Liam Gallagher praises "top man" Gerry Cinnamon for doing "supernatural" things

It's not the only time Liam Gallagher has hit out at the government this month.

Last week saw the Wall of Glass singer have a dig at Boris Johnson's children controversy & offer himself up as Prime Minister.

Taking to Twitter, the Shockwave singer joked: "My name is Liam Gallagher I have 4 beautiful children I have dabbled in drugs over the years I’ve had many number 1s now send me the keys to no10 I’ll sort this pile of shit out WHY ME?WHY NOT."

He then incorporated his name into the word Parliament to drive the point home.

See his posts below:

Gallagher is fresh from his headline gig at Irish independent Park, where he was supported by Gerry Cinnamon.

Watch Liam play his Shockwave single below:

Taking to Twitter after the performance, he praised the Scottish singer songwriter and described his growing success as "supernatural".

Gushing about the Belter singer on the social platform he wrote: "It was great to finally meet the GC not her R Gerry top top man doing supernatural things x".

See his tweet here:

Watch Cinnamon perform his Canter single in our video:

Gallagher is preparing to release his forthcoming solo album Why Me? Why Not, which he revealed will be released on 20 September 2019.

Take our Oasis quiz here: