May rejects claims that police cuts fuel rise in knife crime
THERESA MAY has promised a cross-Government response to knife crime as she rejected claims police cuts had contributed to a series of brutal stabbings around the country.
The Prime Minister vowed to tackle the causes of knife crime by addressing the issues which led “so many young people” to carry blades.
But Mrs May was accused by political opponents of presiding over reductions in police numbers and cuts to youth services which have contributed to a rise in violent crime.
The Prime Minister, a former Home Secretary, insisted there was “no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers”.
“What matters is how we ensure that police are responding to these criminal acts when they take place, that people are brought to justice,” she said.
“But what also matters is, as a Government, that we look at the issues which underpin, that underlie, this use of knives and that we act on those.
“That’s a cross-Government approach, it’s not just about the police, it’s about the whole of Government and it’s the whole of Government that’s responding.”
She said “a lot of this is gangrelated, some of it will be drugsrelated, there are a wide variety of issues that need to be addressed here and that’s what the Government is doing”.
But Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Graham McNulty indicated that extra officers did make a difference in tackling the problem. He said: “In advance of the weekend just passed, we had arranged for more officers from our Violent Crime
Taskforce to be on duty and we have extended their shifts to raise visibility across London. The increased police presence has made a difference, with officers conducting more than 2,500 stop and searches in the last three days alone.”
The body that represents rankand-file officers said the Prime Minister was “delusional”. John Apter, national chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “Policing has been stripped to the bone and the consequences are clear, splashed across newspaper front pages and TV news bulletins – children being murdered on our streets.”
Home Secretary Sajid Javid will chair a meeting of police chiefs on Wednesday, including chief constables from the areas most affected by knife crime. It comes after the fatal stabbing of 17-yearold Jodie Chesney in an east London park on Friday night in what her family branded a “totally random and unprovoked attack”. On Saturday, 17-year-old Yousef Ghaleb Makki was stabbed to death in Hale Barns, near Altrincham, in Greater Manchester.
Meanwhile an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches found the number of recorded offenders under 18 committing homicides using a knife or sharp instrument rose from 2016 to 2018 from 26 to 46. Mr Javid said: “Young people are being murdered across the country and it can’t go on.”
The Home Office said an extra £970m in police funding is proposed in 2019-20. But Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said: “Knife crime is spiralling out of control. There needs to be serious action to save young people’s lives. This is against a background of huge cuts to youth services and, as senior police officers point out, the surge in school exclusions which leave young people prey to criminal gangs.”