Labour leader Keir Starmer on crime related visit to Buckinghamshire

Sir Keir Starmer will visit Buckinghamshire this morning (January 25) alongside Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper as part of the second leg of the Labour Party's Missions tour.

It comes after the party leader said a Labour government would launch a £100 million youth programme to tackle knife crime, promising "real consequences" for offenders and an end to "empty warnings and apology letters".

Speaking to reporters yesterday (January 24), Sir Keir said that 14 years of Tory government had left children feeling scared on the streets.

He said: “I spoke to teenage girls in Stoke who told me that they feel scared going into the high street, even during daylight. I was really shocked because normally the readout when we have these meetings is older people understandably saying ‘I’m worried about going out’, but to have teenage girls saying they are worried about going out in their own high street was really shocking.

“I am very worried about young people, and they ought to be able to walk the streets feeling safe. I know it sounds obvious. But it is basic, it’s really important.

“And after 14 years of this Government, we do not have that level of confidence in our young people feeling safe that we ought to have.”

The party said it would oversee a "total crackdown" on the availability of knives on British streets, promising a comprehensive ban that would also target the sale of dangerous knives online including "Rambo" knives, swords and machetes.

Labour has hit out at the delay in ministers legislating to ban zombie-style knives after it was promised last August.

Conservative policing minister Chris Philp said: “This is just another reheated pledge from the Labour Party using money they have already spent seven times.

“They cannot say what their plan actually is. Because just like their reckless £28 billion-a-year spending spree they don’t have a plan – meaning higher taxes for the British people.”