700 children victims of knife crime in one year in West Midlands
"Is Theresa May the last person to deny the link between police cuts and knife crime?"
Nearly 700 children were victims of knife crime in the West Midlands last year, police data shows.
Speaking at PMQs, Wolverhampton North East MP Emma Reynolds raised the figures and asked if Theresa May was "the last person standing" to deny a link between rising knife crime and policing cuts.
Figures released by West Midlands Police after a Freedom of Information request show 690 youngsters were victims of knife crime in 2018, including 41 children of primary school age.
A total of thirteen 10-year-olds were victims, along with 28 11-year-olds, 58 12-year-olds, 90 13-year-olds, 147 14-year-olds, and 177 15 and 16-year-olds.
Three incidents ended fatally – including the murders of Keelan Wilson and Jaydon Washington.
Fifteen-year-old Keelan, from Wolverhampton, was stabbed to death just yards from his home in Merry Hill after he was jumped by an armed group of masked attackers. The investigation remains open and no one has been charged with his murder.
Jaydon Washington, 16, was knifed to death in Coventry in November. West Midlands Police is still to charge anyone with his killing.
Cuts and crime link
Former shadow communities secretary Ms Reynolds said police officers had drawn a direct link between Mrs May's decisions as home secretary to axe 20,000 officers and the current knife crime crisis.
"Last year 690 children were attacked or threatened with a knife in the West Midlands," she said. "Parents are terrified.
"Police officers across the country agree there is a link between the knife crime epidemic and and the Prime Minister's decision as home secretary to cut 20,000 police officers from our streets.
"Is she the last person standing to deny that link?"
Mrs May said more funding was going into tackling knife crime and Home Secretary Sajid Javid met the chief constable of West Midlands Police last week.
She said: "Yes, there were some difficult decisions in terms of public sector funding but they were taken because of the appalling set of circumstances in the economy left by Labour."
Soft sentencing
Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative MP for Romford, warned about "soft sentencing" after passing on his condolences to the families of recent victims of knife crime.
He said: "When two-thirds of those carrying a knife escape custodial sentence and when one-in-five repeat offenders avoid prison, what assurances will the Prime Minister give that we're serious about getting tough on knife crime?
"And does she understand why so many people are fed up with soft sentencing?"
Mrs May said judges must have the powers they need to impose tough sentences on those involved in serious violence and knife crime, adding: "The law already provides for a mandatory prison sentence for a second offence of carrying a knife, and conviction of a knife or offensive weapon offence is now more likely to result in some form of custodial sentence and for longer than at any point in the last 10 years.
"Individual sentencing decisions are a matter for the courts but we are catching and prosecuting more people who carry a knife.
"Those who are convicted are more likely to go to prison and for longer."
She added she is working with Mr Javid to see what more they can do.
