Evidence of concerns about gangs of men carrying out such abuse in London was taken from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services reports from between 2016 and 2025.
The mayor has previously said there were 'no reports and no indication' of Rochdale- or Rotherham-style grooming gangs in London, while the Met's Chief Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he had 'not seen' them.
Yet Sir Mark has more recently suggested to the London Assembly last week that there was a 'very significant' number of multi-offender cases that would need probing again amid a grooming gangs review by the Home Office.
Former Greater Manchester Police detective Maggie Oliver, who turned whistleblower to expose failures tackling grooming gangs in the north of England, told of her horror at the latest allegations from London.
The inspectorate's reports suggested six potential victims had been identified, with girls as young as 13 being preyed upon by grooming gangs.
Ms Oliver, whose Maggie Oliver Foundation charity supports survivors, said: 'I came to realise that everybody at the top 100 per cent knew and wanted to cover it up.
'I think the Met is the last bastion of being able to cover up, because I have no doubt from the work we do that there is a similar pattern of abuse - I don't know how they've managed to cover it up for so long, but it doesn't surprise me.'
And the Conservatives' shadow home secretary Chris Philp accused Mr Khan of 'facilitating a cover-up' by denying the existence of such gangs in the capital.
Mr Philip, MP for Croydon South, said: 'It is shameful that the Mayor of London is claiming to have no indication that grooming gangs are operating in London despite personally responding to reports containing evidence of victims abused by grooming gangs in the city.
'It is clear Sadiq Khan is facilitating a cover up.'
And Reform UK MP Lee Anderson said: 'There is real, credible evidence that grooming gangs exist in London, and for the Mayor to have potentially turned a blind eye is utterly shameful.'
Adam Wren, director of the Open Justice UK organisation that helps grooming gang survivors secure court transcripts, has added to the criticisms of the Mayor today.
Mr Wren told the Daily Mail: 'The evidence for this has been hiding in plain sight.'
Earlier this year his group, along with Crime Spotlight UK, drew up maps of cases showing the trafficking of girls into London, using official documents.
Mr Wren added: 'These weren’t hidden files, they were publicly available court and police records that nobody bothered to analyse.
'It's always been uncomfortable for Sadiq Khan to acknowledge this issue, as these gangs highlight the worst failures of multiculturalism.
'But it's also been dangerous for him to blanket deny it, failing victims past and present of grooming gangs in London.
'We hope to see him apologise and support a national inquiry looking into trafficking nationally, especially in London.'
Two victims were mentioned in a report in February this year by the inspectorate on the Met's 'handling of the sexual and criminal exploitation of children', according to an investigation by the Express and MyLondon.
One was a 15-year-old girl missing for four days before being found with a man aged 21 and she then told officers of being raped by 'numerous men'.
The other was a girl aged 13 said to be at high risk, with officers identifying two men that were suspected of sexually exploiting her.
The previous February, HMICFRS's equivalent report found a social worker told of a 15-year-old girl being coerced to go to a hotel where she was given drugs and alcohol and forced to carry out sexual acts on men.
Their previous study in February 2018 included details of a girl aged 17 telling the Met a number of men raped her after plying her with alcohol.
And an earlier inspectorate report in November 2016 told of two more victims, one of whom was a 16-year-old who said she was raped numerous times over a three-year period by a group of men in London who threatened to harm her and her family.
The other was aged 13, went missing overnight and was reported to police as being unsafe and in a room with three men.
The risk level was raised to 'high' and she was found but arrested for a minor assault on her mother while the three men were not interviewed, HMICFRS said.
Mr Khan had provided formal statements in response to each report, including calling the November 2016 one 'deeply troubling' and saying it was 'simply unacceptable' that too often 'children in our city have been let down'.
His comments in response to the inspectorate's findings in February this year, Mr Khan said it was 'reassuring' that the Met had made 'significant improvements'.
In a statement in response to the new criticisms, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: 'The Mayor has always been clear that the safety of Londoners is his top priority and nowhere is this truer than in safeguarding children.
'Sadiq is committed to doing all he can to protect children in London from organised criminal and sexual exploitation and bring perpetrators to justice.'
They said this included Mr Khan's £15.6million Violence and Exploitation Support Service offering specialist support to young Londoners who are vulnerable, caught up in or being exploited by criminal gangs in the capital.
The spokesperson added: 'We remain vigilant to emerging and changing threats and will continue to do everything we can to protect children in the capital from abuse, violence and exploitation in all its forms.'
The Met said: 'We understand the very real concern the public have around so-called grooming gangs and treat all allegations of sexual offences and exploitation extremely seriously.
'Our data shows the group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation picture in London is more varied than in other parts of the country and does not neatly align with patterns of methodology, ethnicity or nationality seen elsewhere and reported on extensively.
'We are utterly committed to protecting vulnerable children and bringing those responsible to justice.
'There is still much work to be done, including encouraging reporting of offences so we have the fullest possible picture, but we have made significant improvements in the past decade to enable us to do that effectively.'
A Home Office spokesperson said: 'The sexual abuse of children by grooming gangs is among the most horrific crimes imaginable, and every allegation must be investigated thoroughly, wherever it leads.
'That is why we have initiated a new policing operation, Operation Beaconport, overseen by the National Crime Agency, which has already flagged more than 1,200 closed cases of group-based child sexual exploitation for review.'
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