Knife crime statistics evidence of Labour’s empty words - Huhne

"The scourge of knife crime on our streets is best tackled by catching more knife carriers," said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary. Commenting on today’s knife crime statistics, which show only one in five people convicted of knife possession go to prison while one in four get away with a caution, Chris Huhne said:

“This is yet more evidence of the huge discrepancy between what ministers say and what actually happens.

“Posturing on penalties by Labour and the Tories has offered nothing but empty words. It would be better to have firm but fair penalties at a reasonable level, rather than bravado on sentencing that the courts never apply.

“The scourge of knife crime on our streets is best tackled by catching more knife carriers. That means more police on the streets in knife crime hot spots, identified using hospital data.

“Cardiff has shown how doing this can reduce wounding by 40%. It is staggering that these obvious lessons have not been learnt across the country.”