New task force would ‘deter’ hate crimes on London buses and Underground

Sadiq Khan has promised to set up a transport ‘task force’ to combat hate crimes in the capital if he is re-elected as Mayor of London on May 2. It comes after incidents were recorded on the capital’s buses and the Underground.

The mayor’s team says the plan would bring together community representatives and transport chiefs to ‘share knowledge on the key areas of risk and identify and develop improvements to safety measures’. This includes improvements to CCTV or lighting to ‘improve detection of criminals’, a ‘streamlined rapid response team’ to deal with inappropriate or racist vandalism and a ‘more visible presence’ from transport staff or police to ‘deter hate criminals and allow quicker intervention’.

There would be a ‘specific focus’, Mr Khan says, on ‘improvements to transport interchanges and stations’, to ensure all communities feel safe as they cross the city.

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The Community Security Trust’s Antisemitic Incidents Report 2023 showed 4,103 instances of anti-Jewish hate recorded across the UK in 2023, with more than 170 incidents reported on the Tube and buses. Meanwhile, Tell MAMA, the leading hate crime monitoring agency on measuring anti-Muslim incidents, has recorded a total of 2010 cases since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, with over 500 of those cases being in London.

The mayor said this morning: “No part of London should feel unsafe or unwelcoming to any Londoner, especially our busy transport network. There has been a deeply worrying rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic hate crime in London and across the country since October 7, and we need to do everything we possibly can to address this.”

Plan would ‘bear down hard’ on criminals

He added: “TfL and the police have been doing all they can to target offenders, but there’s always more we can do. We need to be even more proactive in preventing incidents happening in the first place and targeting the worst hotspots. This new Taskforce will work directly with London’s public bodies, helping them bear down hard on violence, hate and intimidation, particularly against women and girls.

“This will always be a priority for me as mayor. There must never be any complacency when it comes to fighting hate crime across our city.”

Read our full sit down interview with Sadiq Khan ahead of the London mayoral election on May 2 here. Read our chat with Susan Hall, his Conservative rival, here.

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