Reform UK has demanded that Sadiq Khan declare a Public Order Emergency to halt the “knife crime crisis” in the capital.
Penning a letter to the London Mayor, Reform’s Deputy Leader Richard Tice and Assembly Member, Alex Wilson, have asked for a ramp up of stop and search, as well as a boosted police presence.
“In your London, we’re now at a point where parents have the constant worry they may receive a call from school telling them their child is not returning from school. Not because they’re at an after-school club. Not because they’ve got a detention. Because they’ve been stabbed to death,” the letter said.
“Since the pandemic, you’ve presided over a 50 per cent increase in knife offences. We are seeing thousands of knife incidents on our streets every single year. Without action, it’s clear to see that we are on course for a record year.
Children as young as 11 are carrying knives (Stock Image)PA“Year after year, we have seen a rise in knife crime. It’s time to put an end to that.”
They said that Khan needs to introduce Spectre, an initiative that runs twice a year and aims to raise awareness of knife crime and the police response in detecting and preventing it, on a permanent basis.
The party is also calling on the Mayor to ramp up stop and search in “hotspot areas”, “dramatically boost” police presences, and launch “weapon sweeps” across London.
Tice and Wilson wrote the letter following the stabbing of 14-year-old schoolboy, Kelyan Bokassa, which took place yesterday on a bus.
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The party is also calling on the Mayor to ramp up stop and search in ‘hotspot areas’
PA
Bokassa died shortly after the knife attack on a 472 double-decker bus on Church Street in Woolwich, southeast London, on Tuesday.
Police, paramedics and the London Air Ambulance descended on the scene just after 2.30pm yesterday after a police officer on patrol raised the alarm.
Though medics tried to treat the 14-year-old’s injuries, he died soon afterwards.
Police said they were working “at pace” to find his killers – but no arrests have yet been made.
The party is also calling on the Mayor to ‘dramatically boost’ police presences
PA
His mother said her son had been “taken advantage of” by local gangs, and he had also been “exposed to drugs”.
In October, the Metropolitan Police said it was intensifying efforts to reduce knife crime and crack down on violent gangs across the capital.
In 2024, there were more than 15,000 knife related offences in London – 2,200 up on the year before.
While the number of teenagers stabbed to death last year rose to 18, five times more than the number of youngsters killed in 2022.