A London assembly member claims violent crime in the capital are being driven by a fall in the number of prosecutions.

Conservative assembly member,Tony Arbour suggested to the deputy mayor for policing and crime, Sophie Linden, that a lack of criminal prosecutions is driving up violent crime in London during a meeting today.

Figures from the Metropolitan Police show that so far this year in the capital there have been 72 murders.

Out of those fatalities 47 of those were committed using a knife and 9 using a fire arm.

Mr Arbour also pointed to figures from the Metropolitan Police showing that prosecutions for people arrested for knife crimes fell from 31 per cent in 2015 to 22 per cent in 2017.

He said: “If someone is committing a crime isn’t it likely that one of the factors driving them to commit the crime is a lesser chance of getting caught.”

Ms Linden said that people committing a crime “must feel like they are getting caught” but also said there are a number of other factors causing an increase in the violence in the city.

She added: “There have been 700 million pounds of cuts to the police budget and the number of police officers have dipped below 30,000.

“The Metropolitan Police are working very hard but are very stretched and this does have an impact on their ability to tackle crime.

“There are number of reason why violent crime has risen across London and one of those is a cut in resources.

“We also need to look at supporting more youth services to help young people stop getting involved in crime.”

But Mr Arbour was unsatisfied with her answer calling it “generic”.

He added: “Perhaps the real reason for an increase in violence is because the perpetrators are allowed to get away with it.”