Knife Crime: West Midlands

Luke Taylor Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Luke Taylor (Sutton and Cheam) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship for the first time, Sir John. I thank the hon. Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) for securing this important debate and for her passionate speech. It has been deeply moving to hear from Members across the House about the horrific experiences their constituents have had to endure. It is tragic that the names of so many victims of knife crime have been read out today.

As the House knows, the tragedy caused by the knife crime epidemic is, unfortunately, not confined to the west midlands. Although I represent a constituency in a different metropolitan area, it is key to highlight that these issues blight cities and towns across the country. There is something uniquely challenging and disturbing about the vicious cycle of collapsing communities, poverty and gang violence in our cities. That should unite us across this House in a new-found resolve to tackle the issue head-on.

As a Liberal Democrat spokesperson for London, I am acutely aware of the scale of this epidemic of violence across our capital city. Just two weeks ago, 14-year-old Kelyan Bokassa was murdered on the 472 bus in Woolwich. In my own community, in December 2023, we were devastated by the senseless loss of 17-year-old Ilyas Habibi, who was tragically murdered outside Sutton station. Ilyas was a young man with his entire future ahead of him. He had aspirations, potential and opportunities that a blade cruelly stole from him on that cold winter’s day. My heartfelt thoughts are with his family and friends as they continue to cope with such a heartbreaking loss. It is particularly painful that the alleged killer remains free overseas.

Knife crime in our capital has risen year on year, with more than 14,588 offences recorded in 2023 alone. We have all seen tragic stories of teenagers stabbed to death on buses, in their local highstreets, and outside their schools. No young person in this country should have to live in fear of such violent crime when they leave their home. Parents should not have to worry each day about sending their children into the world, and dread the threat that they may fall victim to a senseless stabbing that would tragically cut short their burgeoning life.

The crisis was not properly addressed by the previous Government, or by the current or past Mayor of London, and must be urgently addressed today. It is encouraging to see the Government take new steps to clamp down on the sale of ninja and samurai swords, and to give the police greater powers to seize and destroy weapons, but there is much more to do and a whole-of-society approach is desperately needed.

One huge step forward, on which the Labour Government need to focus, would be a return to proper neighbourhood policing, where officers are visible and known in their local communities. In my constituency and across London, we are increasingly seeing safer neighbourhood officers being abstracted from their areas to other forces and other parts of London, leading to a significant reduction in the capacity for ongoing proactive policing in our communities. Although the level of abstractions has dropped in my constituency and across Sutton in recent months, they are still a problem.

We have also seen a massive reduction in the number of police community support officers. The number of PCSOs in the Metropolitan police declined by 32% from 2015 to 2023. The data shows that in 2015 there were 1,787 PCSOs, but that number dropped by 572 to only 1,215 in 2023. Although that is a startling statistic, more dramatic were the cuts made under Mayor Johnson. Between 2008 and 2016, PCSO numbers dropped from 4,247 to only 1,626, so under the last Conservative mayor, PCSO numbers were cut to 38% of the level that they were at when he took office. That means that fewer than two in five PCSOs remained after his eight years running the capital.

The failure to protect proper community policing, under both Labour and Conservative administrations in London, is deeply concerning because it undermines the important role that visible policing plays in creating a sense of security and, of course, in deterrence. Research consistently shows that having officers on the beat serves as a powerful deterrent to violent crime, including stabbings, with criminal activity dropping significantly in areas where police are actively engaged and present.

The surge in violent crime only highlights the dangers of reduced police presence in our neighbourhoods. It is extremely concerning to think that the tragic murder of Ilyas occurred just minutes from a police station, outside a busy train station and a packed bus stop—an area where policing should have been as visible and as proactive as possible. That tragic incident, among many others, should be a wake-up call for the Government to get the Metropolitan police to take seriously the scale of the problem of repeated abstractions, and should underscore the importance of maintaining dedicated officers in our communities. We need to ensure that all areas are adequately staffed with officers, who can prevent crime before it happens and respond quickly when needed. Only then will we see a reduction in knife crime.

On the community side, we must not forget that the previous Conservative Government made the problem worse by savagely cutting youth services. Those services are often on the frontline in the war for young people’s hearts and minds; they stand as a buffer between a life of violence and a life of opportunity. Too often those services are derided as a waste of money, or belittled as merely another community project. That is utterly misguided. As Members on both sides of the Chamber have already made clear in this debate, youth services should be recognised for offering a vital public service: early intervention.

When they are well funded, such services are able to fulfil a vital role, alongside the police, schools and other third sector organisations, in developing what we really need: a public health approach to knife crime. That approach—which Liberal Democrats, in London and across the country, have long called for—is the right one. It would mirror the approach that Glasgow took, which has been shown to yield results.

Let us be clear: results in this area are measured in something more important than profit or efficiency; results in this area mean lives saved, lives nourished and lives reinvigorated. A society that stands by and watches youth services wither away is not one that is truly committed to delivering for young people and preventing knife crime. Let us move forward with the renewed conviction that the measure of a civilised society is how it treats its most vulnerable, as we must also remember in the context of young people.