ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Middle-class party-goers who take cocaine socially are fuelling gang violence on the streets of London , Sadiq Khan has said.

The Mayor said recreational drug use is not a "victimless crime", and is linked to the spate of killings on the streets of London.

"We have got to make sure we take action among those young people who are involved in criminal gangs as well as those who are buying them at middle-class parties,” he said.

Taking questions on his LBC Radio phone-in show, said: "There is a definite link, which has been shown to me by the police, of drugs and criminal gangs and knife crime and crime going up.

"There are some Londoners who think it is a victimless crime, taking cocaine at middle-class parties.

"We need to make sure Londoners realise there is no such thing as a victimless crime."

He added: "Some of the young people being knifed on our streets in London, some of the young people losing their lives is because they are involved in criminal gangs who are lower down the food chain in relation to drugs."

The mayor's comments came after Justice Secretary David Gauke said in May that middle-class people who take cocaine "should feel a degree of guilt and responsibility" when they see stories of teenagers being murdered in Hackney, east London.

Mr Khan, who campaigned for a Remain vote in the EU referendum, said Brexit could make tackling the drugs trade harder.

"The drugs come from overseas and the idea that we will be more effective at fighting crime by leaving the EU - by not having the security arrangements with the EU - is ridiculous," he said.

Sixteen teenagers have been stabbed to death in London this year as the capital grapples with a violent crime epidemic.