Ken Livingstone today challenged the film industry to "clean up their act" and stop glamorising violence.

The Mayor said that trivialising violence had contributed to the rise in gang culture on the streets of London which has left two young people dead this year.

He said: "We're living in a society where increasingly cinema and television glamorise violence and the hero is often as violent as the villain.

"When you see real violence depicted it is absolutely shocking but the vast majority of it has a sort of cartoon quality that doesn't look at the consequences or the casualties or the agony that it actually causes.

"I think the entertainment media needs to clean up their act. They have a responsibility here in terms of television and cinema."

Mr Livingstone rejected claims by Tory mayoral candidate Boris Johnson that City Hall had been silent on gang violence and failed to provide proper leadership.

He said he had brokered a deal with the Government last year that would put £58 million into youth work and funding more activities to get young people off the streets.

The Mayor also blamed the last Tory governments for contributing to the breakdown of society.

However, Mr Johnson's aides said that teenagers today had spent more than half their lives under a Labour government.

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