Families of stabbing victims say the Theresa May is staying silent on knife crime and 'only cares about saving her own backside over Brexit'
MPs backed the call as one said: “It’s time for her to act.”
Theresa May was urged to take personal charge after Home Secretary Sajid Javid ducked calls to make Britain’s knife crime epidemic a national emergency.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan was also criticised for going on holiday after 17-year-old Jodie Chesney was stabbed to death in the capital. Met Commissioner Cressida Dick also stayed silent — sending out a deputy to complain about falling police numbers and urge a frightened public to ring Crimestoppers.
Families of knife victims yesterday said it was time for the politicians to take responsibility for ending the stabbing epidemic.
Dorothy Graham, 42, whose son Mickey, 19, was stabbed 12 times in Scarborough in a row over a girl, said: “Where is the leadership? I don’t think Theresa May or the Home Secretary are on top of the problem. Where are they? What are they doing? Every parent who has lost a child to knife crime deserves an answer.”
Lynne Baird, 62, lost her son Daniel, 26, in a knife attack outside a pub in Birmingham.
She said: “We are becoming a lawless society. But Theresa May only cares about saving her own backside over Brexit. We can’t keep having kids killing other kids on the streets. It is like going back to primitive times.”
There is silence from the very heart of Government. The Prime Minister has made no speeches, she’s held no crisis meetings, she hasn’t called Cobra and she hasn’t led any serious cross party campaign.
Richard Taylor, who has campaigned for nearly two decades since son Damilola died after he was stabbed with a broken beer bottle in Peckham in 2000, said: “We are still not getting results. The law isn’t strict enough. The law needs to be a life for a life.”
The PM rejected demands for extra police on the street as Tory backbenchers warned the public was losing faith in her ability to control the streets.
MPs urged Home Secretary Mr Javid to demand a meeting of the Government’s emergency Cobra to respond to the crisis and approve new funds for the police.
But he refused and said: “I really wish there was just one simple answer, one single thing that can be done. But we require action across multiple fronts and the best way to achieve that is for all of us to recognise that and to work together to deliver it.”
Labour MP Sarah Jones said: “There is silence from the very heart of Government. The Prime Minister has made no speeches, she’s held no crisis meetings, she hasn’t called Cobra and she hasn’t led any serious cross party campaign. It is time for the Prime Minister herself to step up and lead.”
Labour MP Stella Creasy read out the name of every person murdered by knives in London this year. She said: “This is a national emergency that requires an emergency response.”
Earlier police chiefs said the PM was “delusional” for refusing to admit that years of austerity had fuelled the crisis.
And Richard Cooke, chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, called for stop-and-search powers to be rolled out across the country, saying the measure is "the only solution to stem the deaths."
Mr Khan was criticised over the Sun’s revelations that he flew out on a mini-break to Morocco with his wife after the Met announced Jodie’s murder on Saturday. Tory London Assembly member Susan Hall said: “This really does sum up Sadiq Khan’s complacent attitude towards spiralling violent crime rates in our city.”
Mrs May, speaking yesterday during a visit to Salisbury, vowed to tackle knife crime by tackling the “issues that underpin that underlie, this use of knives”. She said: “A lot of this is gang-related, some of it will be drugs related, there are a wide variety of issues that need to be addressed here and that’s what the Government is doing.”
But MPs said the comments were nowhere near enough to stop the senseless murder of teens. Labour’s Shadow Policing Minister Louise Haigh said the country was waiting for “national leadership from the Prime Minister. She added: “Warm words are no longer enough.”
Ms Haigh said in 2000 then-PM Tony Blair convened a Cobra meeting to set up a taskforce to bring down a similar rise in violent crime.
Grim 2019 death toll hits 21
THE killings of Jodie Chesney and Yousef Makki mean there have been at least 21 fatal stabbings in Britain in 2019. The youngest victim — Jaden Moodie — was just 14 when he was killed in East London in January.
JAN 1: Tudor Simionov, 33, in Park Lane, Mayfair, London; Charlotte Huggins, 33, in Camberwell, South London
JAN 4: Lee Pomeroy, 51, on train near Horsley, Surrey
JAN 8: Jaden Moodie, 14, pictured, in Leyton, East London
JAN 27: Kamil Malysz, 34, in Acton, West London
JAN 29: Nedim Bilgin, 17, in Islington, North London; Lajean Richards, 19, in Battersea, South London
FEB 8: Aliny Mendes, 39, in Cheam, Surrey
FEB 10: Dennis Anderson, 39, in East Dulwich, South London
FEB 17: Mohammed Sidali, 16, in Highgate, Birmingham
FEB 18: Bright Akinleye, 22, in Euston, London
FEB 20: Abdullah Muhammad, 16, in Small Heath, Birmingham
FEB 21: Glendon Spence, 23, in Brixton, North London
FEB 23: Kamali Gabbidon-Lynck, 19, in Wood Green, North London; Phillip Rooney, 32, in Leigh, near Wigan
FEB 25: David Lopez- Fernandez, 38, in Bethnal Green, East London; Connor Brown, 18, in Sunderland; Hazrat Umar, 17, in Bordesley Green, Birmingham
MAR 1: Jodie Chesney, 17, in Romford, Essex
MAR 2: Yousef Ghaleb Makki, 17, in Hale Barns, Gtr Manchester; woman, 50, in Barnet, North London
She urged Mrs May to do the same now. Ms Haigh also hit out at the cuts to policing under the Conservatives, saying: “We cannot pretend the cuts have not made our country less safe. Sadly, the Prime Minister and other members of her Cabinet continue to deny this crucial link.”
In a thinly veiled plea for more resources, Met deputy assistant commissioner Graham McNulty defended police tactics on knife crime and urged the public to ring the Crimestoppers helpline.
He said: “I can’t magic officers out of thin air, but we are lucky that we have got officers who are professional and committed and want to make a difference.”
The Sun Says
MORE cops, more stop-and-search and harder sentences can conquer knife crime.
The failure on all three fronts, and the rise of “county lines” drug gangs, have been a deadly cocktail.
Scotland cut offences dramatically with new violence-reduction units liaising with social services and schools to target kids early. Courts also imposed much harsher sentences.
Ours are far too lenient. Many ignore the “two strikes and you’re out” mandatory jail rule for offenders over 16.
Neither the Government nor Labour’s holiday-loving London Mayor Sadiq Khan seem to grasp how bad this crisis is.
The Home Secretary must get a grip.
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