UK PM Keir Starmer launches anti-knife crime coalition

LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer convened a coalition to stop young people from falling into knife crime on Monday, joined by actor and anti-knife crime campaigner Idris Elba.

Starmer launched the coalition to fight the "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 knife crime meeting aims to increase understanding of the causes behind youth involvement in knife crime.

The government is also looking to strengthen laws around the online sale of knives and younger people's access to them.

Addressing the summit at 10 Downing Street, Starmer said there was a need to "try to reach into the lives of young people who may be going off the tracks and trying to bring them back before they do so".

"Far too many knives are too easily available, whether that's online, whether that's through the post.

"Talk is good, but action is important," Elba, who shot to fame as drugs kingpin Stringer Bell in the hit TV series "The Wire", said at the meeting.

"We needed joined-up thinking, we needed so many different perspectives: parents' perspectives, youth workers' perspectives, charity organisations, governance, policing," he added, after previously calling the summit a "positive" step.

In January, Elba launched the campaign "Don't Stop Your Future", pushing for urgent government action on youth violence, including addressing drastic cuts to youth services funding in the last decade.

Although knife-related offences in England and Wales are lower than pre-pandemic levels, they have been steadily increasing 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, north England, one of the latest in a series of high-profile cases of knife violence.

The Labour government, in power since the start of July, has pledged to halve knife crime in the next decade.

A ban on zombie-style knives and machetes will come into force on September 24, and will be followed by plans to ban ninja swords.