Doreen: Tory cuts have made young turn to violence..
760 » Our children are abandoned to street gangs » Baroness in plea to restore youth services
DOREEN Lawrence has blamed Conservative cuts to youth services for the horrific rise in violence among young people.
Baroness Lawrence, 70, whose son Stephen was murdered in a racist attack 30 years ago, criticised the funding cuts, warning children are ending up on the streets and in gangs.
Speaking at an event with Keir Starmer to mark the 30th anniversary of her son’s murder on April 22, she said that she wanted to see “more young people survive”, as she declared “change really needs to happen”.
Some 760 youth centres have closed due to spending cuts since the Tories came to power 13 years ago.
Baroness Lawrence said: “Since youth centres have been closed, young people have nowhere to go.
“They end up on the streets and then they get picked up by police and they get into gangs.
“That’s one of the big things the Conservative government did was cut all these youth centres that young people used to go to.”
Baroness Lawrence called on Labour to “bring back a lot of those youth services and centres to help young people”.
She said: “There are many creative things the young can do there, using their time productively.”
SHAMEFUL
Branding the Tory cuts “savage”, Mr Starmer said: “What they did to our public service was shameful, absolutely shameful.
“They’ve broken something fundamental in our country and they should rightly never be forgiven for it.
“What do young people who might have gone to that youth centre or youth services do with their time?
“They end up in the streets. That’s a tough place for a 12, 13, 14-yearold child to try to navigate and always make the right decision.”
Looking back on the 30 years since her son was murdered at age 18, Baroness Lawrence believed it provoked positive changes in Britain.
Stephen’s case led to the partial scrapping of the double jeopardy legal principle which said a person would not stand trial for the same crime twice. Two of Stephen’s murderers,
Number of youth centre closed since Tories took office in 2010
Life has been a struggle.. but positive things have happened
DOREEN LAWRENCE ON TIME SINCE SON’S DEATH
Gary Dobson and David Norris, were finally convicted in 2012, almost 20 years after they killed him.
An inquiry into the Met also ruled the service was “institutionally racist” after its botched investigation in 1999.
At the anniversary event, which was moderated by DJ and presenter Swarzy Macaly, Baroness Lawrence said: “Life has been a struggle but at the same time, there has been positive things that have happened.
“Stephen’s name has managed to change so much stuff in this country.
“If it wasn’t for changing double jeopardy, we would never have had the two convictions that we had.”
She added: “When we look around and see our society now, we talk about the children and young people who are dying in our streets – it took such a long time for people to look at it and say, ‘You know, this is really, really bad’.”
She said that in 1999, just after the inquiry into Stephen’s death, youth murders were seen as “blackon-black crime”.
It had taken a “long time” for people to start “accepting that this is a death of a young person”. She said: “The minute they begin to change that – that you’re looking at a murder – it’s a different thing.”
A Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spokesman said: “Last month, we announced our Youth Investment Fund, which will improve facilities at up to 300 centres, transforming the lives of tens of thousands of young people.”