Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Ed Davey yesterday demanded the Tory Government urgently recruit more community police officers and invest in specialist anti-knife crime projects following statistics published by the ONS revealing offences involving knives have gone up by 16%. 

Ed Davey said: 

“The country is in the grip of a knife crime wave which is exposing the utter failure of the Conservatives’ law and order policies.

“This is a national crisis yet Conservative Ministers are refusing to give a real boost to police budgets and specialist anti-knife crime work.

“The new Home Secretary has got to prove he is up to the job, and he must start by urgently funding more community police officers and investing in specialist anti-knife crime projects and youth services.”