Latest crime stats have blown a gaping hole in the narrative pushed by Elon Musk and other far-right figures that one of the great cities of the world has become a crime-ridden hellscape.
London is actually safer now than at any point since records began.
Figures released by the Metropolitan Police Monday indicate that London’s murder rate declined to just 97 in 2025. That’s an 11 percent reduction on the previous year, the lowest number overall since 2014, and the lowest per capita since the data was recorded.
Analysis by one journalist who attempted to put current numbers in a historical context suggests that the current murder rate per capita may well be the lowest for centuries, dating back into medieval history.
London is one of the most multicultural cities in history, with roughly 40 percent of residents born outside the U.K. Any suggestion of its success directly threatens narratives increasingly pushed by Musk and his allies that greater ethnic and cultural diversity inexorably leads to higher crime and lower economic achievement.
Musk has indeed repeatedly pushed claims popular among right wing figures that violent crime is rising in London and across the U.K., attributing these statistic-defying trends to “two-tier” policing of conservative voices and “massive uncontrolled migration” contributing to the “destruction of Britain.”
“They allow London to be extremely dangerous and instead allocate their limited resources to arresting comedians for social media posts,” he posted in September, responding to the Metropolitan police’s arrest of anti-trans campaigner Graham Linehan for allegedly inciting acts of violence against members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Speaking via video link at a London far-right rally held by noted Islamophobe and convicted fraudster Tommy Robinson later that month, where almost 30 police officers were later injured in clashes with protesters, Musk further warned that “violence is coming” to the U.K. and that “you either fight back or you die.”
Those sentiments echoed previous X posts from the tech tycoon during a spate of anti-immigrant riots across the country last summer. He warned then that “civil war is inevitable,” responding to another post from influencer Ashley St. Clair, who is the mother of one of Musk’s 14 children, describing the unrest as “effects of mass migration and open borders.”
His concerns for public safety in the U.K. would not however appear to have precluded X from hosting a 12-hour “Grokathon” coding event in London later this month. Nor has his apparent contempt for the city’s diversity kept him from conceding last January that it has “epic Indian food.”
Musk’s efforts nevertheless seem to have had an effect on public perceptions in the U.K.. A November poll by Ipsos found 87 percent of Britons were “concerned” about crime across the country, even as those numbers dropped to just 40 percent when respondents were asked about their local area.
“Today, London has its lowest homicide levels in a decade, and the lowest ever per capita,” Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley wrote in The Times Monday. “Despite claims circulated online, including AI‑generated videos creating fictional violent scenarios, some commentators promote a narrative that suits them, regardless that the facts tell a very different story.”
“London is safer, and the progress we are making is saving lives, is measurable and independently evidenced,” he went on. “This is not a matter of opinion or messaging; it is what the data shows.”
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan—a Muslim, who has long proven a target of vitriolic attacks from the U.S. far right, including President Donald Trump—similarly underlined how the facts appeared to have finally caught up with conservative narratives about the city.
“Many people have been trying to talk London down, but the evidence tells a very different story,” he said in a statement. “It’s clear that our sustained focus on being both tough on crime and tough on the complex causes of crime is working.”
In a subsequent interview with Sky News on Monday morning, Khan further said that those “who spread lies and misinformation” about London simply dislike the fact the city is “liberal, that it is progressive, that it is diverse, that it is successful.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Musk’s representatives for comment on this story.
