Journalists have been told that an emergency summit with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan on the capital’s violent crime epidemic, from which they were barred, was not recorded.

As a result, the meeting on April 10, which was due to be attended by Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick and then Home Secretary Amber Rudd, has effectively been held in secret.

Press were told they could not attend the meeting because of strict rules governing publicity in the run up to an election that enforces political neutrality – the period known as “purdah”.