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London crime: Middle class cocaine users should feel blame for capital's stabbings, says Justice Secretary David Gauke

The Justice Secretary those who take cocaine at dinner parties are responsible for fuelling the violence on London's street: PA
The Justice Secretary those who take cocaine at dinner parties are responsible for fuelling the violence on London's street: PA

Middle class drug users should feel blame for fuelling the spate of fatal stabbings blighting London, the Justice Secretary has said.

David Gauke said those who take cocaine at dinner parties are responsible for fuelling the violence on the capital’s streets.

Since the beginning of the year, at least 37 people have been stabbed to death amid more than 60 killed murders in London.

"People who do that have to recognise they are fuelling the industry that's resulting in the knife crimes, resulting in the difficulties we're having in prisons," Mr Gauke told Sky's Ridge on Sunday.

David Gauke said middle class drug users should 'feel a degree of guilty and responsibility' for London's stabbings (PA)
David Gauke said middle class drug users should 'feel a degree of guilty and responsibility' for London's stabbings (PA)

"There's a responsibility for middle class people that take cocaine at a dinner party that when they see a story of a 15-year-old boy stabbed in Hackney (east London) they should feel a degree of guilt and responsibility."

Speaking to The Times this week, Mr Gauke said there had been a dramatic rise in the overall prison population in the UK, driven by "tougher and longer" sentences for serious crimes.

"Twenty-five years ago the population was 44,000. Today it's 84,000," he said.

Meanwhile, earlier this year it emerged that the London's murder rate had overtaken New York City's for the first time ever.

Figures revealed that there were more murders committed in the capital in February and March than there were in New York.

On Monday a man was stabbed to death in Upper Street, Islington as the city's knife-crime epidemic continued. He was named locally as Marcel Campbell, 20, a father-of-two who lived in Tottenham.

Police Federation deputy treasurer Simon Kempton has also blamed the wealthy for creating the demand for cocaine, while security minister Ben Wallace warned the UK is "fast becoming the biggest consumer" of the Class A in Europe.