Knife Crime: Children and Young People

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ben Obese-Jecty (Huntingdon) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the matter of knife crime amongst children and young people.

First, let me place on the record my gratitude to the Backbench Business Committee for granting this time in the House of Commons Chamber. I also thank all those from both sides of the House who supported my application for a debate on this topic.

There are some issues that I believe rise above the Punch and Judy vaudeville that characterises so much of our political debate. I called for this debate because I believe it is a topic that Parliament needs to discuss bravely, honestly, frankly and robustly; I believe it transcends party politics and party lines; and I have been calling for it for several years—since long before I became a Member of Parliament.

I wholeheartedly welcome this Government’s pledge to halve instances of knife crime over the next decade. The previous Government sought to tackle knife crime but, sadly, were unable to do so effectively. Although I do not doubt either Governments’ intent and desire to achieve that aim, I am sceptical that this Government will fare much better than the last.

For all the hype and the fanfare, this is an issue that repeatedly falls by the wayside, until it is thrust back into the spotlight with the tragic death of yet another child. Put simply, I do not believe that Governments of any hue have shown the mettle required to tackle this with the resources, approach and focus that is required.

There are no easy solutions to this issue. The Government’s most recent data shows that of 19,903 offences resulting in a caution or conviction for possession of a knife or offensive weapon, juveniles aged 10 to 17 years old were the offenders in 18% of cases. A community sentence was the most common sentence given to those 10 to 17-year-olds—61% of all knife and offensive weapon offences across that age demographic.

Over the past decade, 10 to 17-year-old offenders showed the biggest decrease in average sentence length, with a 25% decrease from 8.1 months in March 2014 to 6.1 months in March 2024. Around 70% of youth offenders were committing their first offence. In the 12 months to March 2024, 57 young people aged under 25 were murdered with a knife or sharp object, 17 of whom were children aged under 16. In 2023, the most recent year for which the data is available, just 6.5% of knife and offensive weapon offences resulted in immediate custody. With a 93% chance of not going to prison, why should anyone carrying a knife fear the law?

Before becoming the MP for Huntingdon, I spent a decade working in London and lived in Haringey, north London. At that time, Haringey had the second highest rate of knife crime in London. It is difficult to explain what it is like to live in an area of London where murders and stabbings become so commonplace as to elicit little more than a shrug from local residents; where police tape closing a road or a local park is normalised to the point of merely being an inconvenience; where the murder of a child does not make the national news; and where five children being charged with murder does not make the national news, as with the case of the murder of taxi driver Gabriel Bringye in 2021.

This desensitisation is but one part of the problem. Over a three-year period, there were at least a dozen fatal stabbings within a mile of my front door. Several of those victims were children. Half of those arrested in connection with the crime were children, as were the perpetrators too. I remember the murder of 16-year-old Stelios Averkiou. He was stabbed multiple times by his assailant after he resisted his mobile phone being stolen in Lordship recreation ground. I was in the park shortly afterwards and saw the aftermath. I remember for weeks afterwards the handwritten posters on the trees around the park asking for anyone to come forward with information.

I remember the murder of 17-year-old Anas Mezenner, fatally stabbed near Turnpike Lane station in another fight over a mobile phone. The 17-year-old boy guilty of the stabbing had dozens of videos of himself on his own phone posing with large blades. While on remand, in a recorded phone call, he had stated:

“Just wanted my little chinging to get it, my first little juice on my blade. It’s just gone in my man’s arse...The whole 15 went in down his arse.”

Anas died from a fatal stab wound to the buttocks from a knife with a 15cm blade. All five charged with the murder were children.

I remember the murder of 17-year-old Ali Baygoren, stabbed in the neck twice outside his home just across the road from the Tottenham Hotspur stadium. His murderer, a 16-year-old boy, was on bail having only nine months previously stabbed a 14-year-old boy in a dispute over a lighter, leaving a knife buried in his chest. That boy survived. There are dozens more.

On Tuesday, a 17-year-old boy was stabbed after a mass brawl involving young men armed with machetes erupted in Forest Gate, east London. On Monday afternoon, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed in broad daylight in Turnberry Park in Birmingham. On Saturday, a 15-year-old was stabbed in McDonald’s in Southall, and two 14-year-olds were arrested. Last Friday, in Oxford, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed, and two 13-year-olds and a 12-year-old were arrested. Last Thursday, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed at the Bobby Moore Academy in Stratford. Three boys were arrested.

Last week in Yorkshire, a 15-year-old boy was found guilty of the attempted murder of a 14-year-old girl with a samurai sword on a camping trip last November. She suffered 10 wounds, including damage to a lung and her liver. The forensic pathologist’s report said that she was lucky not to have been killed. The court heard claims that he had been offered £20 by a friend to attack her.

These are not isolated incidents, but a daily occurrence across the country. These are vicious, feral, deranged attacks that are traumatic for the victims and for those involved, yet they are often little more than a passing headline in a list of other, more newsworthy, tragedies.

We are all aware of the role that social media plays in this context and how its algorithms can facilitate a dangerous influence on young users. For children and young people, their world is small, often limited to their school, their friends and people they know in their neighbourhood, but with access to social media that changes. Their world remains small, but the issues within it are amplified—blown out of all proportion.

In its 2021 paper, “Knife Crime in the Capital”, Policy Exchange wrote that

“the frequency with which young people associated with gangs are confronted with violent videos on social media shifts their perception of normality, desensitising them and increasing the chance that they will react violently. It also reinforces the perceived need to carry weapons for protection.”

In the intervening period since that paper was written that same influential factor has rippled outwards to children who, although not associated with any gangs, exist in a very online world where it is all too easy to become seduced by the belief that carrying a knife is a normal and essential aspect of everyday life, that the threat of attack is ever-present, and that carrying a knife is a key component of self-defence.

Police forces have even now altered their approach to sharing images of weapons seized during operations, after feedback that this in itself contributes to the process of desensitisation and simultaneously makes young people feel that their local area is unsafe, thus encouraging them to carry a knife themselves. But we need look no further than the social media platforms that we ourselves use: Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok. I use YouTube every day, but scratch the surface and we can find harmful content, such as scoreboard videos outlining who has stabbed or killed whom in localised turf wars for gang supremacy. These scoreboard videos brazenly chase clout, highlighting those involved, outlining who “wetted” someone, who “burst” someone else, who “bussed their case”—got away with it in court—and who therefore remains dangerous and at large. This illustrates that those involved can often enjoy a degree of impunity.

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the hon. Member for making such an impassioned speech. He has just outlined some of the role of the social media companies. Does he agree that the same rigour that we rightly use to catch some of the perpetrators of these crimes should be applied to the social media giants who refuse, in some cases, to take down really explicit and graphic images on their websites, saying that they do not breach their content policies?

[Ben Obese-Jecty]

That is a very valid point. The social media companies themselves know full well that this content is there and could easily create an ability to moderate it. These are billion dollar companies and if they wanted to take down this stuff, they could. It is about willpower. It is part of our responsibility in this House to make sure that that happens.

Fear of being stabbed or killed far outweighs any fear of the police. We only need to watch one of the videos I mentioned to see how an endless immersion into this world can cloud people’s judgment.

When I asked a Justice Minister whether such videos could be used as evidence to prosecute the Government’s new law of possession of a knife with violent intent, I did not receive an answer, and I am not sure whether the Minister quite understood what I was making reference to. I ask the Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire whether she could address that specific point in her summing up at the end of the debate.

--- Later in debate ---

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty) for securing this important debate and for his powerful speech.

The devastating impact of knife crime is felt at the heart of my Vauxhall and Camberwell Green constituency. The most heartbreaking thing I do as an MP is speak to a parent who has just heard that their precious son or daughter has been taken away far too young by knife crime. No parent should have to bury their child. When I sit there trying to comfort a family through something so horrific, I glance over their shoulders and see the pictures of that smiling face—of the innocent young life that has been robbed. I should never have to get used to that, but we all have to do it as Members of Parliament.

My hon. Friend the Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) highlighted some of the statistics, and as awful as they are in their own right, we must remember in talking about them that someone loved every single one of them—a friend, an aunt, an uncle, a brother, a grandparent, a mother, a sister, a family. They are now devastated about losing someone who had barely started their life.

Let me touch on the wider impact of knife crime on communities, which we do not focus on enough. When I was on the London Assembly, I authored the “Gang Associated Girls” report, in which we considered the impact that knife crime can have on girls and young women, who, if we are honest, may not often be viewed as the immediate victims of knife crime but who go through long-term trauma as a result of their experiences. In a number of incidents, it is young women and girls who are the first at the scene. It is the same young women and girls who help the community grieve. It is the same young women and girls who organise the funerals. And when the glare of the media has gone and the incident is out of the news cycle, it is the same young women and girls who go back to lay flowers at the cemetery, remembering the key anniversaries. Even if those young women and girls are not presenting at hospital after knife crime, we must remember that this is also about their long-term trauma. It is important that we do not forget their voices in this debate.

That is why we need a holistic approach to address this issue. The whole community needs to come together if we are to break the vicious cycle of knife crime and the chain of trauma that impacts so many of our young people, robbing them of their future. It saddens me that just a few weeks ago there was a tragic shooting in my constituency, and in line of sight from a playground at a primary school was the blue line that says, “Police line do not cross”. Imagine the impact on those children.

It is vital that we continue to work across parties to address knife crime. It is not about politics; it is about young people dying on our streets up and down the country. I am pleased to see the Government committing to the Young Futures programme, which will champion the vital youth workers who are the lifeline that many of these young people need. If we are honest, those youth workers have not been paid properly, and many have lost their jobs and seen their youth centres close. We need to continue speaking about this, and I know that the Government will continue to work with us to make sure we address the vicious cycle that is robbing so many of our young people of their lives.

--- Later in debate ---

[Florence Eshalomi]

I thank the shadow Minister for her comments. Yes, the police have a vital role to play in dealing with knife crime. Does she agree that our youth workers, who work with some of the most vulnerable young people up and down the country, are also a key defence in stopping knife crime? In some instances, young people who are caught up in a vicious cycle of crime trust youth workers more than they trust the police.

[Harriet Cross]

I thank the hon. Member, who is so engaged and invested in this issue, for her comments. Youth workers, teachers and guardians—anyone whom a child trusts—are important in addressing this issue, and we must ensure that everybody has the powers and that society has the powers needed to address knife crime. Any action that helps reduce knife crime is an action that we should be looking at.

As well as stop and search, emerging technologies—for example, devices that allow the detection of knives at a distance and in crowded streets—could allow officers to more precisely identify and remove knives from would-be perpetrators. Alongside enforcement, prevention and early interventions require attention, and the Conservatives did make advances on that while in government. Between 2019 and 2024, violence reduction units were funded in areas of England and Wales where there was a prevalence of violent crime. According to Home Office evidence, these have led to a statistically significant reduction in hospital admissions for violent injuries. Since the funding began, an estimated 3,220 hospital admissions for violent injuries have been prevented in these funded areas.

We must also ensure that the police have the ability to be in the right place at the right time. As we have heard from Members across the House, too often it is being in the wrong place at the wrong time that leads to injury through knife crime. This is particularly crucial for young people, who congregate in hotspot areas, so ensuring that our police forces have the resources to increase patrols and increase their presence in such areas plays a key role in both prevention and response.

I acknowledge that the Government have placed significant emphasis on the delivery of Young Futures hubs to identify the young people most at risk of being drawn into crime. While we all recognise the benefits of providing support to young people, the effectiveness of the hubs will depend on implementation. Resources must be distributed effectively to ensure that young people receive the support they need, particularly given the range of activities that the Government intend the hubs to carry out alongside the reduction in knife crime. May I therefore ask the Minister how the hubs will be structured, and what work will take place outside their physical spaces to ensure effective engagement and early intervention?

We have seen police and crime commissioners using their independence to explore programmes that can provide earlier interventions. For instance, Thames Valley PCC Matthew Barber’s Operation Deter Youth ensures that youth offending services make contact with under-18s arrested for weapon or violent offences within 90 minutes of notification of arrest, followed by a house visit within 48 hours. I am not asking the Minister to be prescriptive, but will she ensure that police forces have the Government’s backing to trial innovative techniques such as knife scanning and new preventive techniques to help save young lives? Fundamentally, what are her plans to change the mindset that has developed that enables children to stab and murder other children?

Reducing knife crime among young people is a critical task for this and any Government. When we hear the names that we have heard today of some of the many—too many—young lives that have been lost to knife crime, we are reminded that these are not just statistics, but devastating events that bring untold anguish to families. We must do everything possible to bring down the numbers.