UK PM denies surge in knife crime is linked to cuts to police budget
British Prime Minister Theresa May has rejected the idea that years of cuts to on police budget imposed by her government were to blame for a historic surge in knife crime in the country.
“What matters is how we ensure that police are responding to these criminal acts when they take place, that people are brought to justice,” said May on Monday, adding, there was “no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers.”
The comments are the first by May in response to public calls for urgent government action to contain growing knife crimes that keeps claiming more lives on the streets of Britain.
They come days after several teenagers, including a 17-year-old girl, were killed in mostly unprovoked attacks in London and other large cities.
Activists and campaigners believe government cuts have left police hugely understaffed and unable to respond to all emergencies.
Police commanders have also confirmed there has been acute shortage of officers to deal with the growing violence on the streets.
The police in London, known as The Met, reacted to May’s remarks, saying they could not “magic officers out of thin air” to tackle the problem.
Graham McNulty, the deputy assistant commissioner of The Met, said since a shocking incident late on Friday in east London, where a teenage girls was stabbed to death, the force had been forced to extend shifts to respond to a series of knife attacks.
“In advance of the weekend just past, we had arranged for more officers from our violent crime taskforce to be on duty and we have extended their shifts to raise visibility across London,” said McNulty.
Authorities in Greater Manchester, a city in northern England, also called on the government to restore grants suspended since 2010 to enable police recruit more officers.
The call came after a 17-year-old boy was killed in the city in what his family said had been an unprovoked attack.
The Channel 4 said on Monday that hospitals across the UK has reported a 93-percent rise in admissions since 2012 for teens under 16 who had been attacked by knife.
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