Knife crime has dominated the headlines recently after more young lives were lost across the country.

Yet Theresa May still maintains there is no correlation between falling police numbers and rising crime.

It is difficult to find anyone who shares her view. The numbers simply don’t add up.

While £850m has been removed from police funding in London, knife crime has risen between 10-30per cent across the tri-borough area (Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham, and Havering).

That’s why I launched my Calling Time on Crime campaign back in September, and will soon be taking the petition to Downing Street.

This isn’t a distant problem, it is something that is hurting our community on a regular basis.

Over the last couple of weeks moving tributes have flooded in across the three boroughs for Jodie Chesney, the 17-year-old who tragically lost her life to knife crime in Harold Hill.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Jodie.

One thing is clear, we need change. Last week I joined every Labour MP in London by co-signing a letter demanding Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, invest more in the Metropolitan Police as part of his Spring Statement.

By 2021 the government will have reduced funding for the police in London by £1billion.

Something needs to be done.

Clearly we need more frontline officers keeping our streets safe.

But we also leadership, investment, and to start building proper social networks again – linking up youth services, the charity sector and communities to ensure that children are given hope rather than despair, and less reason to turn to lives of crime.