Priti Patel yesterday conceded the latest rise in knife crime was ‘appalling’
Priti Patel yesterday conceded the latest rise in knife crime was ‘appalling’ – as she vowed a tough new approach.
In a frank admission, the Home Secretary said that an overall fall in recorded crime could not mask the misery caused by a sharp rise in knife offences, which are at a record high.
Official figures released last month showed that knife crimes in England and Wales rose by 7 per cent last year to 45,627.
The figure represents a 49 per cent rise on 2011, when comparable records began.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Miss Patel said the figures were ‘terrible’ but vowed a tough new approach which would mean thugs caught with a knife ‘going down’.
The Home Secretary hailed the encouraging statistics which show a 5 per cent fall in recorded crime last year.
But she admitted that the figure obscured the devastating impact of knife crime, county lines drugs operations and other serious crime.
‘The figures are appalling,’ she said. ‘There is something so corrosive around knife crime that we absolutely have to break.
The Home Secretary said that an overall fall in recorded crime could not mask the misery caused by a sharp rise in knife offences, which are at a record high (pictured, police attend the scene of a stabbing in Ilford, east London, April 26, 2020)
‘There are things that we are doing. More officers – 100 per cent that is going to make a difference.’
She also said measures are being put in place such as knife crime prevention orders.
She added: ‘If you are caught with a knife, quite frankly, you will be going down and that is the right thing.’
Miss Patel also said that ‘police leaders’, such as mayors and police and crime commissioners, are still not doing enough to prioritise tackling knife crime.
She singled out London Mayor Sadiq Khan as someone who ‘should be doing more’ following a wave of stabbings last year in the capital, which now accounts for about a third of total knife offences.
The Home Secretary said London Mayor Sadiq Khan ‘should be doing more’
An aide said that Miss Patel was focused on getting to grips with knife crime, adding: ‘When she says she wants to see these people going down, she means it.’
The Home Secretary said she had been moved by conversations with the families of knife crime victims.
‘I’ve met far too many families who I have sat with in heartbreaking circumstances, whose children have died because of knife crime,’ she said.
‘I have heard of horrible stories of children who have gone to A&E, who have been stabbed but are too frightened to divulge information on who has done that to them because they are too frightened.
‘That is the stuff we have to grip – it is the only way we are going to save lives.’
The interview is the first Miss Patel has given to a newspaper since she was hit by a wave of bullying allegations earlier this year following the resignation of her permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnam.
The allegations are being investigated by Sir Alex Allan, the Prime Minister’s adviser on the ministerial code.
A report this week said that Miss Patel was set to be cleared and a Whitehall source told the Mail that Sir Alex had found ‘no evidence’ to back the bullying claims.
Downing Street claims the investigation is ‘ongoing’ but with Boris Johnson having already declared he will ‘stick with Prit’, few are expecting her to go anywhere.
Miss Patel also said the lockdown has resulted in ‘phenomenal stories of crime-busting’ as criminals are finding it harder to blend in.
She said: ‘When everyone else is at home, the guys who are out and about looking a bit shifty, they’re the ones being zapped.’
Her tough talk – and uncompromising defence of the police – has helped her win the support of rank and file officers.
But when asked if she could hack it on the front line herself, she suggested not.
‘I have met so many recruits and they say the training is pretty intensive – it is boot camp stuff, quite physical. To be quite frank, I’m not cut out for that kind of stuff.’
This week she held a video call with half a dozen new officers at Lancashire Constabulary to mark the milestone of recruiting an extra 3,000 police – a stepping stone on the way to the Government’s pledge to take on an extra 20,000 in three years.
Miss Patel has taken a hands-on approach since her appointment last summer, attending a number of drugs raids.