Starmer pledges knife crime action after No 10 summit

Hollywood star Idris Elba (left) speaks at the 10 Downing Street knife crime summit with PM Keir Starmer (right)

The prime minister has pledged to "double down" on knife crime after a summit at Downing Street aimed at halving it over the next decade.

Hollywood star Idris Elba joined Sir Keir Starmer and experts including police, technology companies and victims' families, to attend the first meeting of a coalition to tackle the issue.

It aims to stop young people from being dragged into violent gangs and will hold annual meetings to work towards reducing knife crime, which is now the most common method of homicide in England and Wales.

Speaking after the first session, Luther star and knife crime campaigner Mr Elba said the talks had been "a step in the right direction".

The 51-year-old actor, whose Elba Hope Foundation is part of the new anti-knife crime coalition, said it was important to hear from all those touched by violent crime so there could be "joined-up thinking" and perspectives including parents, teachers and youth workers.

He said: "There's been a lot of talk, there's a lot of emotion around it, but the truth is that room was a coalition of thinkers that all have the same goal and it was a really positive step in the right direction."

He added the first steps would be to try to tackle "low-hanging fruit" like online sales of blades, and stressed he had a personal interest.

"We aren't going to end knife crime - we can't, that's not realistic - but we can tackle the attributes towards it," he said.

"At the centre of it is obviously young people - my son's 10, and I'm hoping the work that we do annually, keep pushing, [can] help him by the time he's 16.

"There are kids right now that are 16 to 24, they're in that cycle right now that we might not be able to help, but with our joined-up thinking we can help future generations."

The Elba Hope Foundation's youth advocacy arms gives out grants to community projects and launched the Don’t Stop Your Future anti-knife campaign at the start of this year.

In January, Mr Elba helped at a protest in Parliament Square where clothes were laid out to represent those killed by knives on UK streets and called for an immediate ban on so-called Zombie knives and machetes.

Mr Elba and King Charles hosted a mini-summit on knife crime at St James's Palace in July, where they heard from young people about their difficult starts in life.

Those young people have all worked with the Prince's Trust - now called the King's Trust - as did Mr Elba, whose acting career was kickstarted by a £1,500 grant from the Trust to go to the National Youth Music Theatre.

Baroness Doreen Lawrence, mother of murder victim Stephen Lawrence, was also at the summit and said government ministers continuing to listen and focus, was vital.

She said: "Parents have been suffering for too long, losing their children, so the fact the PM was chairing this meeting, that's a positive thing."

The prime minister promised to stick to his election commitments around tackling violent knife crime and said he will start by making it harder to buy dangerous weapons online.

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

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

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.