When the grooming gang crisis came under renewed scrutiny at the beginning of this year, the former Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall asked Sadiq Khan eight times during mayor’s questions whether or not grooming gangs were operating in the capital.

His response was odd, to say the least.  Instead of directly answering the question, Khan repeatedly asked Hall to ‘define what she means by that’, and accused her of being nervous about speaking clearly. After some back and forth, Khan stated that there were issues in London with young girls being groomed in county line drug gangs, for which there was already a plethora of programmes and ‘hubs’.

A month later, on 25 February, the London Conservatives brought forward an amendment proposing a £4.49 million ‘independent inquiry into the exploitation of children in London’. The amendment was soundly defeated by 16 votes to nine, with Labour, Greens and Liberal Democrats opposing.

In June, when pressed again by Susan Hall, Khan gave a more straightforward answer. He said ‘there are no reported cases and also no indication of the grooming gangs that she is concerned about in London’, saying further that he had ‘no indication of them being in London’. Hall then asked if hypothetically evidence emerged that those in ‘Whitehall,........

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