Starmer to hold annual summit on knife crime for ‘grieving families’

Sir Keir Starmer will hold a national summit on knife crime every year to hold law enforcement and technology companies to account on behalf of victims.

The Labour leader said the party’s aim to halve knife crime incidents within a decade would be a “moral mission” at the heart of an incoming Labour government.

He also pledged to bring families of victims and survivors of knife attacks into a cross-government coalition of government ministers, councils and tech firms so that their voices can be heard.

“Knife crime is an issue above and beyond party politics,” he said ahead of a meeting on Tuesday with victims’ families where he will set out Labour’s policy.

“For the parents grieving sons and daughters who never came home, action to end this scourge cannot wait. Far too often we hear the same stories from grieving families who have been subject to these brutal murders carried out by children.

“It is our duty as political leaders of all stripes to work together to end knife crime and keep our young people safe.

“Cutting knife crime will be a moral mission for the next Labour government. Our new cross-government coalition will put knife crime victims and their families at the heart of government, working with us to take the strongest action in a generation to end this tragic crime.”

It comes as knife crime nationally has risen by 7.2 per cent to nearly 50,000 offences, close to the past record high of 51,200, according to the Office for National Statistics. One in four police forces including the West Midlands and the Metropolitan Police recorded their highest-ever knife crime rates in 2023.

It follows the conviction of two 12-year-old boys for the knife murder of Shawn Seesahai, 19, in a Wolverhampton park in November last year. They are thought to be the youngest killers convicted since the murder of the toddler James Bulger in Merseyside in 1993 by the 11-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.

Sir Keir has pledged that no young person caught with a knife will escape sanction under Labour such as jail, tagging, curfew, fine or behavioural contracts.

Under its Young Futures programme, every area will be expected to identify the young people most at risk of being drawn into violent crime, with a package of support that responds to the challenges they are facing.

Labour’s manifesto also pledged new laws that would result in tech firm executives facing up to two years in jail if banned zombie knives and machetes were sold on their platforms. The party plans to extend the list of banned weapons.

The measures would be similar to those in the Online Safety Act by holding executives personally to account through “tough sanctions” if their firms flout rules on sales of ninja swords, zombie-style blades and machetes.

Chris Philp, the policing minister, said: “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.

“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.”