The UK’s Statistical Authority (UKSA) has rebuked London Mayor Sadiq Khan for using figures to attempt to play down London’s violent crime wave.

Mr Khan has repeatedly argued that all crime is rising nationally to portray the problem as not specific to London, as well as blaming central government rather than taking personal responsibility.

However, London has a very specific problem with dramatically rising levels of violent crime, most prominently knife and moped attacks.

Sir David Norgrove, head of the body that oversees the quality of official figures, told Khan in a statement: “It is not the case that crime has been rising nationally, as has been suggested in some of your recent statements.”

However, he added: “The most recent crime statistics find that police-recorded crime shows a likely real increase in some higher-harm, violent offences.

“For example, police recorded 16 percent more offences involving knives or sharp instruments this year, compared with last year. This is supported by NHS data.”

Sir David Norgrove writes to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan on communication of crime statistics https://t.co/ei0aWSUltX — UK Stats Authority (@UKStatsAuth) August 7, 2018

Users of social media responded by accusing Mr Khan of “lying”.

In January, the Mayor said he “can not solve knife crime by myself” when pressed on the issue in the London Assembly.

In his scripted response to a knife crime question, he said there had also been rises in knife crime in “Bristol, Sheffield, Oxford, and Birmingham”, and insisted the problem in London is “not new”.

He also repeatedly blamed “massive” and “unprecedented” cuts by the Tory government to the police for the violent crime wave.

WATCH: London Thug Uses Huge Knife to Attack Driver on Busy Street https://t.co/R6fMKf6OcY — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 1, 2018

London has been struggling with the phenomenon of moped-enabled crime, which is up by as much as much 2,138 percent in some parts of the capital in recent years.

Only 643 of 24,294 reported offences resolved over a 12-month period — less than 3 percent.

These crimes are often exceptionally violent, with two men who were recently imprisoned for a range of crimes including stabbing a man in his fifties over a Bible described as having “hunted people down and made a sport of it”.