The Metropolitan police is temporarily moving 120 officers to fight violent crime in the capital.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan will be adding a total of 122 more officers to his Violent Crime Taskforce, so that there can be more police officers in areas with high levels of violent crime.

The officers will be taken from the Road and Transport Policing Command unit (RTPC) and will move on September 17 for three months.

This will allow more intelligence-led and targeted stop and searches to be made.

Mr Khan said: “This is drastic action that I would rather we didn’t have to take, but the Government’s persistent refusal to give out police service the funding they desperately need has left us with no choice.”

The Government is responsible for 70 per cent of the Metropolitan Police budget but since 2010 it has cut funding to them by £700 million.

The number of police officers in London has also dropped below 30,000 for the first-time in 15 years.

Mr Khan added: “The causes of violent crime are extremely complex, and involve culture, community, gangs, drugs, poverty and a lack of opportunities and have been made much worse by the Government’s huge cuts to the Metropolitan Police and youth services across our city, resulting in police numbers falling to the lowest level in 20 years.

“Cuts really do have consequences.”

The taskforce was launched in April this year and since then has made 895 arrests, carried out 1,400 weapons sweeps, removed 212 knives and nearly 200 offensive weapons.

But Steve O’Connell, the police and crime spokesperson for the Greater London Authority (GLA) Conservative group, criticised the mayor’s plans.

Mr O’Connell said: “I welcome any measures taken to beef up the police’s response to the sky-high levels of violent crime in our city.

“However, this is clearly a knee-jerk reaction from the Mayor following a summer of violent crime. Londoners shouldn’t have to wait for Sadiq Khan to suffer a bout of bad publicity before action is taken to keep people safe.

“Rather than temporarily shifting officers around, the Mayor should be setting out a robust, long-term plan for tackling violent crime.”