‘The hard right hates London – it proves their politics wrong’

What’s the story?

Listen to right-wing activists on social media, and you'd believe London is a crime-ridden "hellhole", where gangs run riot and it is no longer safe for people to leave their homes.

It's all nonsense, of course, and while London isn't perfect, what people like Lawrence Fox, Nigel Farage or Andrew Tate are feeding their followers is scaremongering. But why?

It’s a tactic imported from the US, and Donald Trump of course, who is currently conducting his own attacks on Washington DC with misinformation about crime rates in the city, following his deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles earlier this year.

“There is crime in London, there are crimes in every city in the world. It would be very peculiar if there weren’t,” says Lewis Goodall.

“But we are being presented with the idea of a dystopian hell, as if London has suddenly become this terrible city to live in.”

“The truth is that most of it is complete bollocks.”

What do the stats show?

According to official stats, you're more likely to get mugged in North Wales than you are in London, and there are far more weapons offences in Hertfordshire.

Shoplifting is up in London though, with a 53% rise in the capital, compared with a 20% increase across the rest of the country.

And new data from the office of the London Mayor shows a 13% drop in theft from a person, 13% from robbery of personal property, and 10% drop in residential burglary.

But it's not all good news for the finance bros of Canary Wharf and the Dalston party kids. Stats from the Metropolitan Police show recorded crime has increased by 31.5% in the past 10 years, with a 40% increase in violent crime.

So why the scaremongering about crime in London?

“It embodies the politics that they abhor,” says Lewis.

“Their entire stick, their bullshit, is predicated on the idea that multiculturalism, people from different backgrounds, and contemporary liberalism will inevitably lead to civil war.

“It will lead to social breakdown.”

He says it’s no coincidence that London faces online attacks in a way Manchester does not. London is run by a Muslim Mayor, Sadiq Khan, while Manchester is run by a white British Mayor, Andy Burnham.

“They focus on Muslims, and insist if you've got a lot of Muslims somewhere, it will just inevitably lead to a civil breakdown,” Lewis adds.

“The fact that it doesn't means London lives rent free inside their head, because it is a living embodiment of how completely wrong they are in their politics every day of the week.

“They do not like the fact that so many people of different races live together harmoniously. They don't like the fact there are so many gay people in the big cities, they don't like the fact that there is a cultural liberalism which is at the centre of the politics of these cities, and so they just have to make things up about it.”

What are these people afraid to talk about?

London is a busy, stressful, exhausting city to visit or live in, and like capital cities everywhere it has problems.

But its biggest problem doesn’t get people retweeting – and that is its housing issue. Rents are sky high, and getting on the property ladder is near impossible without a substantial income or financial support from elsewhere.

This is down to a lack of public investment – but that won’t get people as riled up on social media as, say, misinformation about crime, Muslim communities and migrants.

“There are problems with our cities, but they're not the problems that these people want to talk about, because these people have absolutely nothing of interest to say about any of these things,” Lewis says.

“They would rather rail against ghosts and phantoms and imagine cultural enemies, because that is what their politics is.

“They have nothing to say about the day-to-day lived experience of ordinary people living in these cities who do want answers for why parts of their cities or things in their cities are declining, but it's declining not for the reasons that these people say.”

What can be done?

Despite most right-wing agitators sharing disinformation about London based on lies, Lewis believes that people on the left should also engage in this growing conversation – but starting from a more fact-based and diplomatic approach.

“I think liberalism ought not to shy away from this,” he says.

“Yes, there are some problems around integration, and these are problems which ought to be taken seriously.”

He calls for a “dispassionate” conversation about how they can be improved – but that’s not quite as exciting for the people stirring things up.

“The truth is, these people are not interested in that,” Lewis adds.

“It is astonishing how many of these far right accounts, in the last 24 hours, have been mugged personally as they've been walking around the streets of London.

“Most of it is a lie. Most of it is made up.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.