London mayor to speak with commissioner after describing 300-plus arrests as ‘simply too many’ as police respond to surge in knife crime

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, has said the 407 people arrested over the weekend at Notting Hill carnival was “simply too many” amid concerns over a surge in knife crime.

Scotland Yard is to review policing of the event after there were a more arrests than in 2008, when Europe’s biggest street festival ended in a riot.



Police had arrested 314 people by 8.30pm on Monday. On Tuesday afternoon, the Metropolitan police updated the figure to 407, including 106 for drugs, 74 for public order offences and 57 for the possession of knives and other bladed weapons.

The Met said it was the highest number of arrests at carnival in more than a decade. Despite that, recorded crime was actually down compared to the same time last year, the force said.

Eight police officers were injured in scuffles with spectators. One male officer was stabbed and taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Another officer was injured trying to stop a group of men committing criminal damage.



Speaking on LBC radio on Tuesday morning, Johnson defended the west London festival as a great cultural event but said he was concerned about the rise in disorder.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Boris Johnson says he is ‘not necessarily a massive supporter of the way [the festival]’s organised’. Photograph: Velar Grant/Zuma Press/Corbis

He said: “There was some trouble last night. A little bit more than in previous years. Thankfully it didn’t get out of control, but 300 arrests is simply too many and I will be talking to the police commissioner about it later today.”

Johnson said he was “not necessarily a massive supporter of the way it’s organised” and that previous attempts to move the carnival to Hyde Park had been “bitterly resisted by all sorts of people”.

Asked by the LBC presenter Nick Ferrari about the plight of residents who want the festival moved from Notting Hill, the mayor said: “Of course they would and I perfectly understand their feelings. But it’s the biggest street festival in the world outside Rio de Janeiro, it’s been going for years, it’s a great symbol of London’s culture and it generates a huge amount of revenue for the city.”

A 19-year-old man was in a serious but stable condition in hospital after being stabbed at about 1pm on Monday, the second day of the festival. Three men, all aged 18, were arrested over the attack and will be questioned later.



More than 3,500 nitrous oxide canisters with a street value of £17,000 were seized alongside £30,000 of counterfeit alcoholic drinks.

The 407 arrests represent a 55% rise on last year’s total of 261, which brought a warning from the Met commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, that stabbings were often centimetres from being murders.



The 57 arrests for possession of a bladed weapon dwarf the total of 23 arrested for possessing an offensive weapon over the two days of the carnival last year.

The carnival was patrolled by 7,000 officers enforcing a new dispersal zone, introduced for the first time this year to allow police to remove revellers thought to be engaging in antisocial behaviour. Police issued 134 people with dispersal notices, forcing them to leave the party.