LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — London Mayor Sadiq Khan Monday hit back at critics of the British capital and its reputation on crime after data showed the homicide rate fell to its lowest in a decade.

There were 97 homicides in 2025, the lowest since 2014, and London’s homicide rate per capita was the lowest since records began in 1997, according to new figures from the capital’s Metropolitan Police.

Khan has faced fierce criticism from Conservative and far-right politicians in the UK, as well as from international figures including X owner Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump, who claim that criminality in London has increased.

“I’m fed up with these politicians and commentators spamming our social media with an endless stream of distortion and untruth, and this is evidence to the country,” Khan told AFP.

“London is objectively safer than Paris, than Milan, than Rome, than Berlin, than Brussels, than Toronto,” he said in an interview.

“London is safer than every state in the USA. Two and a half times safer than New York, five times safer than Los Angeles, 12 times safer than Chicago.”

Khan said he does not know why Trump and others so often attack London and him.

“It’s for President Trump to explain why I’m living rent-free in his head,” he said.

“I’m quite clear: We as a city are liberal, we are progressive, we are diverse, we’re also probably successful. I suspect that’s why President Trump and others with similar views to him attack London the way they do.”

The Labour party politician, who became London’s first Muslim mayor in 2016 and regularly uses his platform to celebrate the capital’s diversity, has also faced rising Islamophobic attacks on social media.

“The statistics speak for themselves. London is a safe place to live, work and visit. Thanks to the work of our dedicated officers, violent crime has reduced, and homicides are at their lowest levels since 2014,” the Met police said in a press release.