Knife thug boom due to Tory cuts

■ We are now living in the Wild West. While Theresa May has concentrated on making a mess of Brexit, the country has become the most unsafe it has ever been with 10 young people losing their lives to knife attacks already this year.

It’s not just the cutting of police to unsafe levels, it’s the selling off of playing fields and the cuts to local authority budgets which in turn has led to the loss of afterschool clubs and youth centres.

Until Mrs May rights the wrongs of the terrible austerity cuts her Government has inflicted, more young people will lose their lives and the country will sink further into chaos. My heart bleeds for the families who have lost loved ones. Mary Pester, Saltash, Cornwall

■ Does Mrs May have a heart or a soul? For eight years she backed austerity which the UN said inflicted great misery on everyone except the rich. She said the reasons for nurses using foodbanks were complex and there is no magic money tree to give them a pay rise.

Nor would she listen to the likes of The Joseph Rowntree Foundation on Universal Credit, which she defended, and now she won’t listen to police commanders, who know what is going on, when the cuts in police numbers is allowing knife crime to escalate. How much more are you going to inflict on the British people, Mrs May? Mick Rutland, Stockton-onTees, Co Durham

■ On the day that the Daily Mirror published its brilliant double page feature on how one police station a week was closing, another cop shop was being added to the hit list – Eastleigh, which has been at the heart of the Hampshire town for nearly 100 years.

I fear that under Tory austerity, which has already seen more than 21,000 police axed, blood will continue to flow in our streets. It’s a shameful way to run our country. Duncan Eaton, Southampton

■ Our PM and her ministers haven’t got a clue about how the average person lives. They don’t know what it’s like to have to get on public transport, or be threatened by thugs in the street. The cuts to our police service are an absolute joke. I can’t remember the last time I saw a police officer on the beat and criminals know this.

Also, we need to get tougher and severely punish knife offenders, not just give them a slap on the wrist. Sandra Ramsden, Bury

Gtr Manchester

■ This country is now in the grip of a knife crime epidemic but Theresa May is in total denial. She is totally delusional, insisting that the soaring number of victims has nothing to do with her brutal police cuts.

The country needs a massive boost to police numbers and a reversing of the callous cuts to youth services. In essence, we need a Prime Minister who cares.

Shaun Shute, Gloucester

■ Knife crime is on the increase with fewer police on the streets is a green light for thugs to go out and stab anyone at will. If perpetrators don’t have any fear of prison, put them in the Army instead.

Anne Smallridge, Mitcham

Gtr London

■ Not all knife crime is gangrelated, so I wonder how Theresa May would feel if anyone in her family was to become a victim.

D Richens, South East London