LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan has urged bike makers to do more to "design out" motorcycle crime.

Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, BMW and Piaggio were among those invited to a moped crime summit at City Hall yesterday, where the Mayor said they should take more responsibility for public safety by making their bikes harder to steal.

He said current motorcycle designs mading stealing them "far too easy".

More anti-theft measures should included in designs, according to Mr Khan, who also suggested retro-fitting security devices to existing models.

The Mayor said: “It is essential that the manufacturers step up to help us tackle this problem at the source. Put simply, the design of motorcycles make them far too easy to steal and this must be dealt with head-on at the point of design if we are to rid our streets of these crimes.”

There were over 14,000 motorcycle thefts in the capital last year according to the London Mayor’s Office, and 23,430 crimes committed using motorcycles, a 163% increase on the year before.

A spokesperson for Mr Khan said ahead of the summit: “During the meeting the Mayor will strongly emphasise the importance of manufacturers taking responsibility for their customers and the safety of all Londoners and taking action to help ‘design out’ motorcycle -related offences.”

Met Territorial Policing Commander Julian Bennet said: “We welcome any initiatives that make stealing these vehicles as hard as possible to curtail the criminal actions of these offenders. This includes working with industry, manufacturers, insurance companies and the motorcycle industry association to identify what can be done to prevent theft and to see what theft prevention measures can be designed into these vehicles for the future.”