LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday called for a coalition to stop young people from falling into knife crime, joined by actor and anti-knife crime activist Idris Elba.
Starmer launched the coalition to fight a “national crisis”, bringing together campaign groups as well as families and young people affected by knife crime, the most common method of homicide in England and Wales.
The annual meeting on knife crime aims to increase understanding of the causes behind young people's involvement in knife crime.
The government is also seeking to strengthen laws around the online sale of knives and access to them by young people.
Speaking at the summit at 10 Downing Street, Starmer said it was necessary to “try to reach into the lives of young people who may be straying off the path and try to bring them back before that happens”.
“There are too many knives available too easily, either online or by mail order.
“Talk is good, but action is important,” Elba, who rose to fame as drug lord Stringer Bell on the hit television series “The Wire,” said at the meeting.
“We needed to think together, we needed many different perspectives: the parents' perspective, the youth workers' perspective, charities, governance, the police,” he added, having previously described the summit as a “positive” step.
In January, Elba launched the “Don’t Stop Your Future” campaign, pushing for urgent government action on youth violence, including addressing drastic cuts to funding for youth services over the past decade.
Although knife crime in England and Wales is lower than pre-pandemic levels, it has been rising steadily since 2012.
A total of 41% of all homicides in the two UK nations in the year ending March 2023 were knife-related, according to government data.
In July, three girls were killed in a mass stabbing in Southport, northern England, one of the latest in a series of high-profile cases of knife violence.
The Labour government, in power since early July, has pledged to halve knife crime over the next decade.
The ban on zombie-style knives and machetes will come into effect on September 24, and will be followed by plans to ban ninja swords.
