Sir Keir Starmer has promised action to tackle the online sale of deadly weapons as he hosted a summit with knife crime campaigners including Idris Elba and victims’ families.
The Luther star said he hopes to help protect his ten-year-old son from knife crime.
The Prime Minister promised to “double down” on commitments made before the general election on tackling knife violence.
Elba told the summit “talk is good, but action is important” and said he hoped the work done by a coalition of organisations and campaigners could prevent younger generations being involved in knife crime.
Sir Keir said: “Far too many knives are too easily available, whether that’s online, whether that’s through the post.”
There are examples of knives “bought online being posted through without any markings, and then people picking them up without any identification, and then those knives being used”.
It is “just too shocking – that needs to be dealt with”, he said.
Sir Keir suggested ministers will look at the punishments for those caught with knives.
The Prime Minister told the knife crime summit in Downing Street: “We also need to deal with the sanctions for those that are found with knives.”
But there is also a need to “try to reach into the lives of young people who may be going off the tracks and trying to bring them back before they do so”.
Pooja Kanda, whose son Ronan was murdered in 2022 with a zombie knife bought online, told the No 10 summit she was “horrified, absolutely horrified” by what was available to her son’s killer.
“It was as easy as picking up a loaf of bread from a supermarket,” she said.
Calling for action, she said: “I’m not a policy expert in reducing crime. I’m a grieving mother.
“But I will do all I can to ensure that the failings that led to my son’s murder are corrected.”
She added: “It blows my mind at how easy it is to purchase these weapons and have them delivered to your door with absolutely no checks or accountability held.”
Elba, who met Sir Keir during the election campaign to push for action on knife crime, said it was important there was a coalition of interests involved in the first summit, which is expected to become an annual event.
He said: “We needed joined-up thinking, we needed so many different perspectives: parents’ perspectives, youth workers’ perspectives, charity organisations, governance, policing.
“We need all of these perspectives to sit around the table when you think about this.
“We aren’t going to end knife crime. We can’t, that’s not realistic.
