Islington Conservatives have launched a new campaign calling on all political parties to “take knife crime out of politics”.
The party’s Knife Crime Campaign is petitioning Islington Council to provide more education about the impact of knife crime on young people and their families.
Leading members of the campaign will meet parents who have lost children to knife crime, as well as meeting survivors and reaching out to social groups within the community.
Zak Vora, Deputy Chairman of Islington Conservatives, said that knife crime is a societal issue rather than a political one.
He said: “When you’re working with the homeless, you don’t ask them about their race or nationality, or anything else. You don’t ask them about their political persuasion because they are just in need of help. And the same applies with regards to knife crime.
“It’s not about political persuasion. It’s about the fact that there is a need to solve this problem for society, regardless of which background and what your political viewpoint may be, as we all have a common agenda.”
Zak is working alongside Rakhia Ismail, Islington’s former ceremonial mayor who defected from Labour to the Conservatives in November 2020, to spearhead the campaign.
Cllr Ismail said that while the borough is known for knife crime, the best way to deal with the issue is to “try and employ the right key people who can inspire and encourage those young people”.
Prior to lockdown, she met with the family of Ben Kinsella, who was murdered nearly 13 years ago in Islington, and urged everyone to continue to “take knife crime out of politics”.
“Knife crime is the symptom,“ she added. “The root cause of knife crime is the drug trade.
“And that’s what we need to address as part of our campaign and also a national campaign because none of these children would have been lost to us or would have been stabbed if not for the drug trade.”
Zak also reiterated Islington Conservatives’ support for “anything that promotes a safer street environment for kids and everyone in society as a whole”.
#KnifeFree | @IslingtonBC has partnered with charity @Word4Weapons to install six new knife bins around the borough ??
The bins provide a safe and anonymous way to dispose of knives ????
Read the stories of young people who turned away from knife crime ?https://t.co/VVDP6M4Qiy pic.twitter.com/fkjlE2vEhu
— Islington Police (@MPSIslington) October 19, 2020
In October 2020, the Council set up six new knife bins across the borough for people to hand in knives and reduce the threat of them inflicting harm or being used as a weapon.
There were 554 knife crimes offences in Islington between April 2019 and March 2020, according to council figures.
