Hollywood star Idris Elba to join Keir Starmer to launch new anti-knife crime coalition in a bid to tackle nationwide stabbing epidemic
Hollywood actor Idris Elba will join the Prime Minister in Downing Street to launch a new effort to tackle knife crime.
Hollywood actor Idris Elba will join the Prime Minister in Downing Street to launch a new effort to tackle knife crime.
Elba, an anti-knife crime campaigner, will join Sir Keir Starmer on Monday morning as he launches the coalition which aims to stop young people from being dragged into violent gangs.
The coalition will bring together campaign groups, families of people who have lost their lives to knife crime, and young people who have been affected by it – as well as Elba and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
Technology companies, sporting organisations, the health service, and the police are also involved in what is expected to the first annual knife crime summit.
The coalition will work with experts to develop an understanding of what causes young people to be dragged into knife crime.
Elba, an anti-knife crime campaigner, will join Sir Keir Starmer on Monday morning as he launches the coalition which aims to stop young people from being dragged into violent gangs (pictured: Idris Elba and Sir Keir Starmer on June 25)
Hollywood star Elba and Sir Keir spoke to the families of knife crime victims in west London, including the mother of a young man killed by a single stab wound on June 25
It comes after Elba and Sir Keir spoke to the families of knife crime victims in west London back in June, including the mother of a young man killed by a single stab wound
We need to tackle the root causes of knife crime, not just the symptoms, said Elba.
He added: The coalition is a positive step toward rehabilitating our communities from the inside out.
The Prime Minister is expected to share how personal the task is for him, drawing from his legal career.
Ahead of the gathering, Sir Keir said: As director of public prosecutions, I saw first hand the devastating impact that knife crime has on young people and their families. This is a national crisis that we will tackle head on.
We will take this moment to come together as a country – politicians, families of victims, young people themselves, community leaders and tech companies – to halve knife crime and take back our streets.
Ministers have already taken steps to ban so-called ninja swords, and plan to strengthen the laws around the online sales of knives.
Commander Stephen Clayman, the national policing lead for knife crime, has been tasked with leading a rapid review to understand how these weapons are sold online and delivered to under 18s, and to close loopholes in the law.
He will report back to the Home Secretary by the end of the year.
Ms Cooper said: Getting weapons off our streets and making sure there are tough and clear consequences for violence are vital.
And we also need to prevent young people heading down this path – that means offering young people more hope, more opportunities.
Sundays announcement is the first step in the Governments 10-year plan to tackle knife crime, which will be central to its mission to keep our streets safe.
It comes after Elba and Sir Keir spoke to the families of knife crime victims in west London back in June, including the mother of a young man killed by a single stab wound.
Pastor Lorraine Jones told Sir Keir, and actor and anti-knife crime campaigner Elba, at a meeting in Hammersmith, west London, that she saw her son, Dwayne Simpson, killed with one jab wound that went straight through his heart
Ahead of the gathering on Monday, Sir Keir said: As director of public prosecutions, I saw first hand the devastating impact that knife crime has on young people and their families. This is a national crisis that we will tackle head on
He said: Ive had conversations which are difficult, like Idris, youre telling people to put away our knives, but what am I going to hold?
And I feel like I dont know what to say to them, because theyre literally holding these out of fear. But they have solutions, he added.
Pastor Lorraine Jones told Sir Keir, and actor and anti-knife crime campaigner Elba, at a meeting in Hammersmith, west London, that she saw her son, Dwayne Simpson, killed with one jab wound that went straight through his heart.
She said she had continued to live in Brixton, south London, since her son was killed ten years ago, because it is like a battlefield I cant retreat from.
She said: We want to be around the table with you, because we do have the answers right now. Weve got patrols, Idris, volunteers that are patrolling before school and after school, because we havent got enough police officers.
We havent got enough people in the community, we are desperate. And the most brutal thing is were saying its becoming the norm. We dont want it to become the norm.
Its not normal for us to be burying our children, or five-year-olds seeing dead bodies and shrines in our neighbourhood.
Elba said in an Instagram video later that it was a very important meeting families of victims and campaign organisations to discuss what we need to do as a country to fight this. He said it was a non-political issue.
Sir Keir said it was difficult to hear stories from the knife crime campaigners. He added: And it should be difficult to hear, and its very important that it is heard from beginning to end.
