Keir Starmer promises to stop knives ordered by post as he meets victims' families in London

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to stop knives being ordered via post online as he met victims' families in London. The Labour leader visited the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith on Tuesday, June 25, where he said his party would stop the sale of zombie knives on the internet 'straight away'.

Polling suggests that Labour is on course to form the next government after the General Election on July 4. Sir Keir met the family of Ronan Kanda, 16, who was killed in Wolverhampton in a case of mistaken identity by teenage boys who bought a set of swords and a machete online.

The teenager was knifed in the heart and left to die, the BBC reports. Pradjeet Veadhesa and Sukhman Shergill, 17, have been handed life sentences for the killing. Earlier that day, Veadhesa visited a post office to pick up the set of ninja knives and a machete.

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Labour has announced that it would bring in 'Ronan’s Law' to clamp down on the sale and possession of knives. The legislation would seek a comprehensive ban on possession of a wide range of lethal weapons.

Sir Keir told reporters today: “The Government has announced 16 times that they’re going to ban the online sale of zombie knives. We as the opposition said we support this, bring the legislation, it will go through, they haven’t done it. Knife crime now is up 81 per cent since 2015.”

'It's not rocket science'

He added: “It’s a problem that we all have responsibilities for so legislation on knives is a Government issue and the Government has failed on this issue. We will not fail on this issue.

"There are other measures, one of the families here their son was murdered by a knife that was sent through the post by a shop, ordered online in ordinary packaging and picked up by a 15-year-old who didn’t need to show any identification."

“It’s not rocket science. I will stop that straight away and I think it’s so outrageous that that can even happen.”

Policing minister Chris Philp told PA: “When Keir Starmer was in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service convictions for weapon possession fell, and knife crime has risen by 20 per cent in Labour-run London.”

He added that the Tories had a plan to recruit 8,000 more police officers. Mr Philp said: ”The choice at the election is clear: cracking down on crime with Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives, or back to square one with Keir Starmer and the same old Labour who consistently fail to tackle crime.”

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