Boris Johnson under fire over incorrect claims about London murder rates during first Commons speech

New PM has put tackling crime at the heart of his new programme

Boris Johnson has come under fire for incorrect claims about the London murder rates during his first Commons address as prime minister.

The former mayor tore into "pessimists and doubters" on the opposition benches as he claimed that the number of homicides in London fell below 100 for "more than four or five years running" while he was in City Hall.

However official figures show the number of murders in the capital only fell below 100 once during his time as mayor, dropping to 94 in 2014. In 2015, his last full year in office, there were 119 murders.

Mr Johnson also told MPs that he was able to reduce knife crime during two terms as London mayor using a "very active policy of stop and search", despite a decline in use since 2008/9.

It comes as newly-appointed prime minister made a bullish first speech to the Commons, where he urged Brussels to drop its opposition to a new Brexit deal.

Asked about reducing knife crime by Tory MP Bob Blackman, Mr Johnson said: “I was proud to work with [you] in London, when we reduced serious youth violence by 32 per cent.

“We reduced the murder rate, which I don’t think even the pessimists and the doubters opposite could contest.

“We reduced the murder rate by 50 per cent, we kept the murder rate in London at fewer than 100 for more than four or five years running.

“The way we reduced knife crime in London was by a very active policy of stop and search, which I know the party opposite opposed.

“They were wrong. We took thousands of knives off the streets of London - 11,000 knives - we saved lives across the city.”

Stops and searches peaked in 2008/09 at nearly 800,000 and fell to just over 130,000 in 2017/18, according to government data.

Sarah Jones, Labour chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on knife crime, told The Independent: "Our new prime minister is inheriting an epidemic of serious violence, so it would help if he got his facts right.

"Stop and search in London fell every year Johnson was Mayor, so for him to use this as the single reason for the post-2011 drop in knife crime is worrying."

The Croydon MP added: "The message from senior police officers and other experts was clear: stop and search should be a tactic, not the entire strategy.

"If we are going to effectively combat knife crime and reduce it over the long term we need to think bigger and use a range of measures spanning enforcement and prevention."

Liberal Democrat MP Sir Ed Davey said: "This isn’t the first time Johnson has exaggerated his record on crime as Mayor of London.

“This isn’t a harmless lie. He’s using it justify a policy that clearly failed: his massive expansion of stop and search, which his own Government’s analysis shows had ‘no discernible crime-reducing effects’.

“The Liberal Democrats demand better than Johnson’s lies and failed policies. We demand a real solution to knife crime: more police and a public health approach to stop the spread of violence.”

Mr Johnson has put tackling crime at the heart of his new programme, promising 20,000 more officers on the streets by 2022.