“It is not good enough that violent crime is stabilising, we need to see a decrease.”

This warning came from the Mayor of London’s second in command for policing, Sophie Linden.

Speaking at the London Assembly police and crime meeting, she was joined by the deputy commissioner for the Metropolitan Police, Craig Mackay.

Ms Linden was questioned about whether violent crime was stabilizing after the murder rate in London has now reached over 100.

She said: “It looks like we are beginning to see a stabilisation, but this is a stabilization at a high level and that is still not good enough, we need to see it decreasing.”

She said a Violent Crime Taskforce, launched in April by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, has made a “huge" different to the number of arrests and knives on the streets.

“But we can’t be complacent,” she added.

Since it was launched the taskforce has made over 1,300 arrests, recovered 40 firearms, 340 knives and over 200 offensive weapons.

But during the meeting, concerns were raised by assembly member Umnesh Desai about whether taking the officers from the RTPC would compromise its work.

Mr Mackay assured assembly members this would not be the case.

He said: “There will always be an impact, but it is about minimising that impact. If the move does not have an impact we will have to change tactics and do something else.

“The RTPC is a large command unit and we have got to take police officers from somewhere where we can deal with it.”

The RTPC is currently the biggest Metropolitan Police Unit and is made up of more than 2,300 police officers.

Mr Mackay also told the committee if moving the officers to the Violent Crime Taskforce is successful he would look at how the move can be extended.