Tragic mother accuses Ministers of failing to tackle knife crime

Lorraine Fraser, who discussed knife crime with David Cameron at Downing Street last year, said plans to cut the number of prison places, while reducing spending on police and councils had undermined his promise to get tougher on violent offenders.

Her comments came after Home Secretary Theresa May announced that more than 18m would be spent on tackling crimes involving knives, guns and gangs over the next two years.

The commitment follows a report by former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, who was made a Government adviser on the issue after her 16-year-old brother Ben was stabbed to death.

Ms Kinsella said young people carried knives for reasons of "fear and fashion" and she called on schools to hold more anti-knife crime presentations and share more information with police and other agencies.

Miss Fraser, whose 16-year-old son Tyrone Clarke was murdered in Leeds in 2004, said the strategy was undermined by Justice Secretary Ken Clarke's proposals to close some prisons and impose more community sentences.

"It feels like we have all been punched in the face with this Government," she said.

"They said they were going to get tough on crime but, from where I'm sitting, they're going the other way with Ken Clarke's proposals in the Green Paper.

"A lot of funding is being cut from groups campaigning about knife crime and gun crime, and youth offending teams have been affected. People are losing their jobs.

"These new proposals are all things we have been doing for a long time anyway, but the groups are now having to go without grants.

"Projects that work are being pulled and then the Government tries to put new things in their place.

"This Government seems to talk a lot without doing much. They say one thing and then do another."

Ms Kinsella began working with the Tories on knife crime before the election and spent July and August talking to project leaders and community workers.

She believes primary schoolchildren should take part in anti-knife crime workshops, a recommendation Miss Fraser agrees with.

"I think children are aware of what knife crime is," Miss Fraser said, "but what they don't know is what happens to the families affected – the consequences."

Speaking after the report's launch, Mrs May said anyone found in possession of a knife should expect to spend time behind bars. "On sentencing we're absolutely clear that the sentence for somebody who is convicted of murder using a knife should be 25 years and we're absolutely clear that somebody found in possession, caught in possession and convicted of possession of a knife, should expect a custodial sentence," she said.

"That's tough sentencing from the Government."

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, MP for Pontefract and Castleford, said there was "complete confusion" over sentencing policy within the Cabinet.

She also accused the Government of being "completely disingenuous" by making cuts which were "100 times bigger than the extra help they are offering".

"If the Government is serious about tackling knife crime," she said, "they should stop the cuts to police on the beat and help protect the work by schools and youth services across the country."

The 'holiday camp' lock-ups

Some teenage criminals see young offenders' institutions as holiday camps while primary schools are reluctant to hold anti-knife crime workshops for fear of affecting their reputation, Brooke Kinsella's report said.

The actress reached her conclusions after visiting projects in cities including Sheffield, London, Manchester and Birmingham.

"Many young offenders said they actually become accustomed to life in a young offenders' institution, with some describing it as 'a holiday camp'," she said.

"Just as the new Government is making it more beneficial to work than to be on benefits, so too must we turn prisons and institutions back into places of punishment, where people want to get out and ensure they don't go back."

Ms Kinsella said most people she spoke to believed anti-knife crime projects should be rolled out to primary schools, but many projects found it difficult to get the message across.

"They felt that many schools and teachers feel that having knife crime workshops in their schools might give the impression that they have a knife problem, which would affect the school's reputation."