London Assembly member Keith Prince believes the police needs to use its resources better in the fight to tackle violent crime.

The Havering and Redbridge representative made the statement in the wake of a leaked Home Office document, which says cuts to the police had contributed to a rise in serious violent crime.

Conservative Home Secretary Amber Rudd denied seeing the leaked documents.

Mr Prince said that although it was possible that there was a link between budget cuts and an increase in violent crimes it was more important to target and use resources effectively.

He said: “Boris Johnson had the same number of police officers as Sadiq Khan yet with Mr Khan as mayor crime has risen.”

“Labour thinks that the answer to everything is to throw money at it but it’s about how you use what you’ve got and targeting resources properly.

This year in London alone, the murder rate has risen above 50.

Measures to tackle violent crime by the mayor include a £45 million Young Londoners Fund which was announced in February to support young people in communities who were at risk of getting caught up in crime.

In March Mr Khan announced that he would increase another £250,000 funding to £1.4m as part of His commitment to supporting young people and communities tackling knife crime.

Yet Mr Prince criticised these moves saying that both initiatives were involved using different pots of money to do the same thing which means that there is a lack of focus and clear direction in tackling violent crimes in London.

Mr Prince added how he would merge police funding for individual boroughs to tackle crime with funding from the Mayors Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and agree clear objectives around early intervention between MOPAC and the boroughs.

“It's about using resources sensibly not as a platform for press releases and political dogma," he said.

In response to the leaked documents, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: "The Home Office’s own research has shown that police cuts have played a role in the increase in violent crime across Britain – but it’s not the only cause and policing can't be the only solution.

“It is clear that this Government does not value young Londoners, but I’m determined to invest in them – with tens of millions of pounds for activities to support them. We will only tackle the scourge of violent crime by getting to grips with its root causes.”

At a summit at City Hall on Tuesday Mr Khan met with politicians from all parties including the home secretary Amber Rudd as well as Metropolitan police commissioner Cressida Dick.

The summit focused on how to tackle the recent surge in violent crimes in the city the mayor called for a ‘relentless focus’ of preventing violent crime.