Selina Scott hits out at Sadiq Khan and says the streets of London aren’t safe after being left to ‘fend for herself’ with no help from police following daylight robbery
Veteran broadcaster Selina Scott has hit out at the Met Police – saying the streets of London are not safe after she was left to ‘fend for herself’ with no help from officers after she was mugged in central London.
The 74-year-old broadcaster was left horrified after she was targeted by a gang of thieves in broad daylight while leaving a branch of Waterstones on Piccadilly last Tuesday afternoon.
The group surrounded the former ITN News At Ten anchor, struck her on the back of the leg, leaving her feeling as if she had been ‘stabbed’, and snatched her purse in one of the busiest parts of central London.
With astonishing bravery given they were carrying what appeared to be a weapon, Ms Scott fought back and was able to keep hold of the bag – only for one of the practised thieves to deftly unzip it and remove her purse before running off.
The stalwart of British TV since the 1980s lost her bank cards, driving licence, and cash in the robbery, which left her feeling ’embarrassed and stupid’.
And in the aftermath it was up to herself to stop them taking any more money – as she sprinted through 30C heat in the capital to cancel her cards.
‘It never occurred to me to ring 999,’ she told Good Morning Britain, saying she was in ‘flight or fight mode’ after running to the ‘sanctuary’ of Fortnum and Mason.
‘I just looked for a policeman or a woman and there was absolutely nothing and I just thought: “You’ve got to fend for yourself in this world. You can’t depend on anyone.”‘
Selina Scott was left horrified after she was targeted by a gang of thieves in broad daylight while leaving a branch of Waterstones on Piccadilly last Tuesday afternoon
The bus stop next to Waterstones on Piccadilly in London where Ms Scott was attacked
After being unable to find help, Ms Scott was left further frustrated to find the nearest police station, West End Central, had been closed for four years.
And officers then failed to attend a scheduled visit to her home the following day, citing a lack of available police cars.
Yesterday, Met Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley apologised for officers not being ‘able to give the service that we would expect on that day’.
The incident raises damning questions about the Metropolitan Police’s failure to robustly tackle such crimes amid a staggering 23.5 per cent increase in similar thefts in the last year alone.
Ms Scott continued: ‘It’s happening to everyone. It’s not just me. What I’ve discovered since it happened to me is that crime is rife in central London.
‘The place where I was mugged is a global hotspot for gangs from around the world. That is where they turn up and with impunity just take what they can.
‘If I had known that I don’t think I would have ever gone near Piccadilly.
‘One of the reasons I am hear today is to warn people if you’re going to go to Piccadilly, if you’re going to go into this Dickensian den of thievery and robbery, then you have to hide everything, and you’ve got to make sure you’ve got something tucked away just incase they do get something and you’ve got nothing left to get home with.’
Ms Scott described the group of men and women in expensive sportswear in a ‘phalanx’ as she exited the book store onto the packed high street.
She explained that she then felt a sharp pain in the back of her leg after she was brutally hit.
She then felt a tug on her shoulder as they tried to wrench her bag away – before she was forced to engage in a tug-of-war with her assailant.
The broadcaster added: ‘They walked along in front of me, as if to hell with everything.’
Speaking about the Commissioner’s comments, Ms Scott told the ITV show: ‘I would have been ungracious not to accept his apology, but this is about women walking alone on the streets of London in the middle of the day, and they can’t be protected.
Yesterday, Met Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley apologised for officers not being ‘able to give the service that we would expect on that day’
Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan (centre) during a visit to Stratford with police in October 2022
‘I actually think right now that Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, should step down. He has lost control of policing in London, his own party is now in power and they’ve turned their back on him.
‘They are not giving him the money the police require to make the streets safe for people like me.
‘Sadiq Khan is now a knight of the realm, knights of the realm have a code of chivalry. It would be the honourable thing for him to do to step down and let someone else try and tackle this tsunami of crime.
‘London is not the place you think it is. It’s got lovely shops, it’s got lovely exhibitions, it’s got that great feeling, but there’s this underbelly of danger. I am not going to the West End in a hurry again and I advise anyone else thinking about this to think twice.’
Earlier this week Conservative politicians today called on Labour Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan to do more to address growing concerns about the spiralling crime rates in the capital.
Ms Scott previously told The Mail On Sunday how the terrifying assault – which took place on busy Piccadilly – left her ‘shattered and traumatised’.
She said she felt ‘furious’ at the lack of a police presence to deter or capture the criminals, despite being told by officers that such muggings were ‘rife’.
In the Crime Index 2025 from popular crowdsourced database Numbeo, London is ranked 103rd out of 380 major cities for crime.
London is below Naples in 54th, but above Milan in 128th and Rome in 153rd – and well above Krakow in 342nd.
Latest data UK Government data from September 2024 showed there are 148,886 officers in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales.
Conservative politicians have also come forward to criticise the levels of crime in London under the Labour Mayor.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told MailOnline: ‘What happened to Selina Scott is horrifying but sadly, the public have come to expect these sorts of cases in Sadiq Khan’s lawless London.
‘Criminal gangs are acting with impunity while the Met Police are warning they will have to lose 1,700 officers due to the Labour Government’s inadequate police funding settlement. Labour are presiding over a breakdown of law and order.
‘We need a zero tolerance crackdown where every single crime is investigated and prosecuted where a perpetrator can be found. This includes using facial recognition from CCTV cameras to catch suspects.
‘Barely over 5 per cent of all crimes in London are prosecuted which is totally unacceptable. Mayor Sadiq Khan, who oversees the police in London, needs to spend less time on politically correct virtue signalling and more time catching criminals, in an urgent zero tolerance crackdown.’
And Susan Hall, Conservative group leader at City Hall, told MailOnline: ‘Our thoughts are with Selina and we hope she is able to make a full recovery.
Veteran broadcaster Selina Scott was attacked and robbed by an organised gang in London
This horrific experience not only demonstrates the brazenness of London’s criminals under this Mayor, it also highlights how badly Khan has let public safety and spaces degrade.
‘This comes before his reckless police cuts truly start to bite – with 3,300 Met Police staff at risk – which will only exacerbate this horrendous situation.
‘He needs to pull his head out of the sand and get a grip on this before more people are harmed or worse.’
Ms Scott, who spends most of her time on her 200-acre estate in North Yorkshire, said she was attacked by ‘around seven or eight’ smartly dressed men and women, who appeared to be of East Asian origin.
She told The Mail on Sunday, Ms Scott said: ‘I still feel shattered after what has happened. I can’t believe it happened to me.
‘I’m mentally resilient and physically fit, but if they can attack me in such a brazen way they can attack anyone. You’re left feeling not just traumatised but stupid that you have somehow let it happen.
‘I’m also furious about the lack of police on our streets. No wonder the gang who set about me have a sense of impunity – they can do anything they want because they know no one will stop them.’
She did not require medical attention but suffered severe bruising to her leg in the assault. ‘I am now only too relieved it wasn’t a knife they used,’ she added.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘While we understand that the victim in this case was frustrated that she couldn’t see any police officers on the street at the time of the incident, we would like to reassure her and the wider public that a significant number of officers patrol the West End every day to target offenders, including those carrying out thefts and robberies.
‘They patrol not just in uniform on foot, but also in plain clothes and in vehicles to have the best opportunity to identify and apprehend suspects.
‘We would be happy to talk to the victim in this case to better understand her concerns.’
Speaking about what the force is doing in relation to violent crime, a Met spokeswoman added: ‘Tackling violent crime in all its forms is a key priority and we are determined to crack down on robberies, which can so often have a significant and traumatic impact on victims.
‘Across London, both uniform and plain clothes officers proactively patrol robbery hotspots to identify, apprehend and deter potential offenders. We also have dedicated teams that target repeat offenders.
‘Incidents of neighbourhood crime, which includes offences such as robbery, theft from a person and shoplifting, have reduced by 18.6 per cent compared to the same period last year. Over the past 15 months, we have also increased our arrests per month by 10 per cent.
‘Our focus on tackling these crimes will continue throughout the summer, using ward-level data and intelligence to really make a difference in key areas.’
And a spokeswoman for Sir Sadiq told MailOnline: ‘The previous government chronically underfunded the Met, making cuts to policing in London that were in real terms equivalent to more than £1.1billion.
‘These drastic cuts resulted in the loss of thousands of officer posts and the closure of dozens of police buildings across the city as the Met tried to make ends meet.
‘Since coming to office in 2016, Sadiq has done everything in his power to support our police.
‘This year alone he is providing £1.16billion investment for the Met to protect neighbourhood policing in our communities, secure 935 frontline police officer posts and significantly reduce the level of cuts the Met had been planning. This is double the amount provided by his predecessor as Mayor.
Selina Scott (front right) is pictured in December 1982 with the BBC Breakfast Time team
‘The Met will publish a new Estates Strategy this summer, setting out its plans for providing the right amount and quality of buildings needed to deliver a new Met for London. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime will scrutinise this carefully.
‘However, the Mayor is under no illusions that there could be further difficult decisions to make and will continue to work with the new government to ensure the Met gets the sustainable funding it needs to help us to build a safer London for everyone.’
The Mayor’s team added that City Hall was working closely with the Met Police to ‘tackle the scourge of phone thefts in London’ amid his concerns that it is ‘simply too easy and profitable for criminals to repurpose and sell on stolen phones’.
Nearly 40 per cent of such thefts are happening in the West End and Westminster – where police patrols and plain-clothed operations have been increased, the spokesman said.
London reminds me of lawless New York when I worked there in the 1990s. Why won’t Sadiq Khan emulate mayor Bloomberg’s zero tolerance crackdown?
By Selina Scott
Stepping out of Waterstones bookstore on Piccadilly in Central London on Tuesday afternoon, I felt a sudden blow to the back of my right knee, and a sharp jab of pain.
It was so unexpected, and hurt so intensely, that the force of it propelled me forward. I stumbled, narrowly avoiding a fall.
My initial reaction was simply that I had been stabbed.
Then, as a young woman barged by, I wondered if the large bag she was carrying had caught me. It appeared to have sharp metal edging around the corners.
A careless accident then, souring what was an otherwise gorgeous summer’s day in which I’d come down from my farm in North Yorkshire and planned to visit the Royal Academy of Art and perhaps dip inside the cool interior of London’s most beautiful church, St James’s.
Only, what happened next proved me horribly wrong. The events of the next few seconds were so swift and practised that it was clear it was a coordinated assault.
A casually dressed group of seven or eight men and women of East Asian origin who had been walking in front of me, dressed in expensive sportswear, had turned and hemmed me in.
One grabbed the straps from a designer Tumi backpack I had slung over my left shoulder and attempted to wrench it off.
Shock and instinct made me hold on to the bag with a tight grip, as another member of the group barged into me. I realised, with growing alarm, that I was being attacked from both sides at the same time.
I was right by a busy bus stop, although no one would have known what was going on. It was slick, brief and clearly engineered to happen in the middle of a crowd.
Then it was over, as quickly as it had begun. I’d held on to my bag, still over my shoulder, and the gang, laughing, walked briskly ahead in the direction of The Ritz hotel.
Feeling battered, confused and a little humiliated, I sought the sanctuary of Fortnum & Mason, a few hundred yards ahead.
There, I realised, to my horror, that my bag’s zip had been pulled back, it was wide open, and my purse, which held all my cash and cards had gone. My driving licence had also been taken, which gave the thieves my address.
My heart dropped. I felt sick. Furious, too – the victim of targeted and well-rehearsed attack. Had the jab to the back of my leg meant to floor or distract me?
Either way, suddenly alone in the centre of a city I no longer recognised, I couldn’t have felt more vulnerable.
I resolved to find a police officer, but despite walking up and down some of London’s busiest central areas – down Jermyn Street, along Piccadilly and over to Leicester Square – I saw none.
West End Central police station, which would have been a ten-minute walk away, had closed permanently in 2021 after being sold to developers for a reported £50 million.
No wonder opportunistic crimes like these are on the rise when bobbies have all but abandoned their beats.
Giving up, I headed home, walking the three miles to my flat in Kensington because I had no cards with which to pay for a bus or taxi.
Dazed and shattered, and with the pain in my leg only growing, I took a breather in Hyde Park to register the crime on my phone using the Met’s online form.
The next day I received a call to say that officers from Hammersmith police station would come to take a statement from me at 8am the following morning.
But at the time they were due to arrive, they rang to say they couldn’t come because they couldn’t find an available police car.
Really? The station is barely a half-hour walk away. Disappointed, I had to make do with discussing it over the phone with the officer instead. Such muggings were, he said, ‘rife’ in the capital at the moment.
He asked if I wanted to take it any further and, honestly, I didn’t. The pointlessness of reporting a crime so long after the event is infuriating – it’s a tick-box exercise, nothing more.
The chances of the police catching a gang with my vague description of their clothes and ethnicity must be almost nil.
Ultimately, pursuing a report would mean me enduring a bureaucratic hurdle – filling in more forms online, having more phone calls. And for what?
All of this could have been avoided if there were more police on our streets, which would serve as a deterrent to these thugs. It’s futile having a police force at all in London if they can’t adequately react to something like this.
No wonder that gang had such a sense of impunity – they can do anything they want because they know no one will stop them.
I’ve since learned that the CCTV outside Waterstones hasn’t been operating for a year because of works on the building, so there will be no record of my assault. Did the gang know that?
Thinking back, I wonder if I was targeted after one of the gang watched me pay for the books I’d bought in Waterstones.
When I returned to Yorkshire on Friday morning, I passed through King’s Cross station and there were big notices and announcements on a regular basis saying, ‘Please take care, thieves are operating’, and assuring travellers they were working closely with the police. What police? Where? It was galling.
The truth is that London is not the city I used to know. Crimes like mine have rocketed more than 23 per cent in a year.
It reminds me of lawless New York in the 1990s when I worked for CBS television. Times Square was so crime-ridden it was a no-go area.
Yet the first priority of the Mayor of London should be to protect the public from lawlessness and keep police stations open in crime hotspots. Sir Sadiq Khan has instead overseen their wholesale closure.
He would do well to learn from Michael Bloomberg who, when he became New York’s mayor in 2002, said there would be zero tolerance of violence and robberies on the street.
He launched a public safety initiative and dramatically increased ‘stop and frisk’ searches. The city became a place where you felt safe once more.
Thankfully, although I’m licking my wounds from the attack, I am strong and fit from working every day on the fields and woodlands at my home.
What chance do the frail and the weak have in London when confronted by the same thing?
Certainly I’d advise anyone not to carry anything that might make them a target; be it a bag, a watch or jewellery.
I will have, for some time, a visible reminder of the day I was mugged in London. What weapon my attackers had used to cause the bruise behind my knee, I don’t know but at least it wasn’t a knife. My bruise will pass but the mental scar will linger.
Unless crimes like these are tackled, however, others may not be so fortunate.
