As the Labour leader receives his knighthood, five charts offer a devastating verdict on Sir Sadiq Khan’s legacy as the Mayor of London.
From soaring crime rates to a serious slump in social housing, the city is said to have fallen into a state of crisis after being plied with a lethal dose of Khan, washed down with a Labour Prime Minister behind the doors of Downing Street.
Taking to X to accept his honour, Khan shared: “It’s a truly humbling moment for myself & my family, & one I hope inspires others to believe in the opportunities our great capital offers.
“I’ll forever be honoured to serve the city I love – & will continue to do all I can to build a fairer, safer, greener London for everyone.”
But GB News has collated a series of charts that deliver the damning verdict of Khan’s legacy during his time as London Mayor – just as he receives the national honour.
Change in the total number of millionaires, 2014-24
New World Wealth
London has witnessed a surge in crime since the pandemic
ONS
Rising crime
An oft-cited sign of London’s decline, crime rates are reaching new heights – just as shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick’s recent stunt on the Underground crime exposed.
Last week, the Newark MP hit the headlines for confronting fare-dodgers on the Tube as Londoners lament the ever-growing issue of petty crime.
“There is an epidemic of fare-dodging in this country,” the Tory MP fumed. “Yobs are laughing at working people who do the right thing. It’s a disgrace. I am sick to my back teeth of it – the authorities need to be shamed into action.”
During the pandemic, when people were scarcer in the city, crime was lower. However, the rates have risen to around 106 crimes per 1,000 – while it was 87 per 1,000 almost ten years ago.
Crimes like shoplifting have similarly skyrocketed post-pandemic, with offences more than doubling from 38,768 in 2022 to 89,821 in 2024, the ONS revealed.
Pub closures
And, partly as a result of rising crime rates, pubs are bearing the brunt of London’s overarching decline.
Formerly a thriving hub for artists, London was proudly the birthplace of the likes of Queen, Fleetwood Mac and The Rolling Stones – all thanks to the city’s bustling pubs, clubs and bars which offered them a start in the industry.
Now, the city’s creative outlet could take a hit as more and more pubs close in the face of damning business rates and licensing restrictions, with 1,165 venues shutting up shop between 2020 and 2023.
The once thriving nature of the city’s nightlife has dwindled
ONS
Declining availability of social housing
Sadiq Khan’s tenure as Mayor has additionally been slandered by the increasingly scarce amount of available social housing.
The G15 – which represents one of the largest housing associations in the city – has called for “swift action” as a “deepening housing crisis” creeps onto the horizon.
As City Hall promised it was “building a better, fairer London for everyone”, the group’s findings found only 4,708 new home builds began between 2024 and 2025 – a staggering drop from 13,744 in the two years prior.
Whitehall has now promised that it was set on “tackling the acute and entrenched housing crisis”.
As a result, the city’s residents are waiting with bated breath for Rachel Reeves’ spending review on Wednesday, which is due to establish Labour’s long-term housing plans.
Social housing has taken a hit under Khan
UK Government
London has been crowned the world’s ‘slowest city’
TomTom
The city’s congestion
Taking home the crown of the world’s “slowest city”, London has become renowned for its crippling congestion. A standard 10km journey in 2023 came to 37 minutes and 20 seconds – a minute more than 2022 and two minutes more than 2021, an investigation led by tech firm TomTom found.
The researchers described this as a “slow but steady return to the pre-pandemic trend of consistently increasing traffic”.
Meanwhile, motorists are slapped with even worse statistics, with the average driver commuting 10km in the morning and evening during peak hours spend around an hour and 28 minutes in rush hour traffic.
And, to make matters worse for Khan’s legacy, congestion has deteriorated ever since Ulez took a hold of the city five years ago.
Despite his office insisting that the scheme “had already helped reduce traffic in the central zone by approximately 10 per cent” last year, congestion levels were found to be 45 per cent higher – a jump up from 37 per cent in 2019.
