The Prime Minister has been urged to tackle the “epidemic” of youth crime after two London teenagers were stabbed to death within hours of each other.
Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy said children and parents in her constituency were “terrified” following the killing of 16-year-old Renell Charles in her constituency.
The Kelmscott School pupil was attacked on Friday afternoon. A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder.
Hours after Renell’s death, Wazabakana Elenda Jordan Kukabu, known as Jordan, 18, was stabbed to death near Dagenham Heathway Tube station. A second male was taken to hospital with a knife injury.
In another incident, a 15-year-old old boy from south London was charged with the murder of Ben Moncrieff, 18, in Bath, Somerset, in the early hours of Saturday.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Ms Creasy told Rishi Sunak: “Children are terrified to go to school. Their parents are frightened to let them and the teachers are at their wits’ end.
“They’ve asked me to come here today to beg you to make the epidemic of youth crime in our country a national priority.
“So will the Prime Minister meet with myself and representatives from my local community to talk about how we can get the mental health and mentoring support these young people need so that every young person in our country has that future they deserve?”
Mr Sunak said the Government always wants to “do more” to tackle youth violence and claimed more powers handed to police had brought down crime.
He said: “We should do everything we can to tackle violence against young people in particular. I’m pleased that knife crime has fallen by almost 10 per cent. And serious youth violence has fallen by 24 per cent in the last few years. That’s because we are giving the police the powers they need. Whether that is stop and search, increasing jail terms, and confiscating around 90,000 weapons. Of course we will always want to do to make sure that our streets are safe for our young people.”
Elsewhere at the first PMQs since devastating local election for the Conservative Party Sir Keir Starmer claimed the country had told the Tories they are “the problem, not the solution”.
In a heated exchange, the Labour leader said voters across England had rejected Conservative policies in a cost of living crisis, resulting in the party losing more than 1,000 councillors after the polls last Thursday.
Sir Keir said: “This is the price of having a tired, worn-out Government fronted by a Prime Minister who boasts he has never had a working class friend.
“He is smiling his way through the cost-of-living crisis, gloating about success while waiting lists grow.
“He is pretending that crime, house building, schools are all just doing fine while handing the country 24 tax rises all with his name on them.”
But Mr Sunak hit back, accusing Sir Keir of being “all politics and no action”.
He branded the Labour leader “Sir Flakey” for breaking election promises.
“It’s a bit rich to hear about mandates from the person who has broken every single promise he was elected on,” Mr Sunak said.
“I can go through the list: nationalisations, NHS outsourcing, universal credit, and now tuition fees. He was for them before he was against them. He’s not just Sir Softie, he’s Sir Flakey too.”
