Actor steps in for the sake of all our children
AS they return to work in Parliament today, MPs must walk past piles of neatly folded clothes representing the 247 people killed by a blade last year.
People like Harry Pitman, 16, stabbed in London on New Year’s Eve, and Elianne Andam, 15, killed on her way to school in Croydon.
It was senseless deaths like theirs that made Idris Elba speak out. He said: “I can’t stay silent as more young lives are lost to these brutal and heartless crimes.”
The Luther star, 51, who has a daughter, 22, and a nine-year-old son, today launches the
Don’t Stop Your Future campaign exclusively in the Mirror. And, as part of the campaign, Idris is releasing a new track, Knives Down, featuring DB Maz and produced by Fraser T Smith and FaNaTiX. In the video, he holds a debate in the House of Commons with bereaved families.
He is calling for funding for youth services, a new cross-party Coalition to End Knife Crime, and a ban on “zombie knives” and other attack blades.
On Friday, Idris visited the Gloves Not Gunz project in Croydon, South London, where he met the “Boxing Bishop of Edmonton” Archbishop Dr Costakis Evangelou, and bereaved families of knife crime victims. Yemi
Hughes, whose 19-year-old son Andre Aderemi was fatally stabbed, said: “Young people need to feel safe in their communities and underlying causes of youth violence eradicated immediately.”
Amanda Stephens, mum of Olly, 13, who was killed in Reading, told Idris: “We would like to see mandatory, structured, anti-knife-crime education in schools.” Pooja Kanda, whose son Ronan, 16, was killed with a “ninja sword” in Wolverhampton told Idris: “My message to government always will be: ban knives to save lives.”
Idris said: “As school returns, too many young people will not be joining their classmates and too many grieving families have lost a young person they love. Young people are our future, their potential deserves to be met, not taken away by violence.
“Parliament has repeatedly not given this issue the focus it deserves, and our political leaders need to prioritise it now. As well as an immediate ban on zombie knives and machetes, we need to give young people more of a reason not to carry a weapon in the first place.
“That means investing in the services that address the root causes of violent crime.”
■ Go to dsyf.com
We want mandatory anti-knifecrime education
AMANDA STEPHENS MOTHER OF VICTIM