We'll halve knife crime

>> Keir Starmer vows tough action on scourge of blades >> Victims will shape policy & new offence will be created

- LIZZY BUCHAN

KEIR Starmer will today vow to halve knife crime within a decade if Labour wins next week's General Election.

The opposition leader will make it a "moral mission" and says survivors and victims' families will help shape Labour's plans.

Police recorded nearly 50,000 knife offences in the year to December 2023 in England and Wales, a rise of 7% on the previous year, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

The number of robberies involving a knife or sharp implement rocketed by 20% over this period.

Crimes involving knives are 3% lower than the prepandemic total of 51,206 in the year to March 2020.

But it comes after a decade of rising violence, with knife offending up 81% since 2015. There were 244 killings in England and Wales in the year to March 2023, with 78 victims under 25 and 10 under 16.