Mayor urges Government to end unacceptable delays and urgently bring forward essential laws to ban zombie-style knives and machetes

Mayor calls on Government to stop delaying and finally bring in laws banning dangerous knives

Sadiq has written to Home Secretary James Cleverly urging him to deliver on the Government’s long-promised ban

As the law currently stands, it is harder for a teenager to buy a lottery ticket than order a ‘zombie-knife’ online

The Mayor has continually called for tougher restrictions to close loopholes and prevent sales of the blades

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is today urging Home Secretary James Cleverly to finally ban zombie-style knives and machetes after years of Government delays to vital legislation that have allowed the dangerous weapons to continue being sold on the streets of London and the UK.

Ahead of a meeting with the Home Secretary, Sadiq has sent a letter calling for him to put an end to unacceptable delays to the legislation and urgently bring forward tougher laws that will ban the blades and close loopholes to prevent their sale.

The dangerous weapons are still available to purchase cheaply and legally online, with no legislation in place – meaning a lottery ticket is harder to buy. The Mayor has continually called on Ministers to bring forward plans to outlaw the knives and toughen up the proposals to ensure the weapons cannot be purchased when laws are eventually introduced.

Plans have been outlined to ban the blades since 2016, but none of the seven Home Secretaries since then - Theresa May, Amber Rudd, Sajid Javid, Priti Patel, Suella Braverman, Grant Shapps and Suella Braverman again – have delivered, despite repeated announcements to ban them. Theresa May, Amber Rudd, Sajid Javid and Priti Patel, together with current Policing Minister Chris Philp, all announced plans to ban the blades since 2016. Meanwhile, Government increased the age for buying lottery tickets in 2021 following a consultation in 2019.

Sadiq will reiterate to the Home Secretary in a meeting this week that tough action is urgently required to finally take these knives off the streets of London and the UK, and that the Government must close the loopholes that risk its latest proposals being ineffective.

That includes the threat of manufacturers changing designs to circumnavigate narrowly defined restrictions – as the proposed measures cover knives that have either a serrated edge, more than one hole in the blade, or multiple sharp spikes.

The latest proposals also allow for machete-style knives that have ‘legitimate use’, including for work or leisure. The Mayor thinks there is not enough evidence to support knives like these being used in London for such purposes, and that they are purchased solely to inflict harm, violence and to intimidate.

Earlier this month, actor Idris Elba also shone a light on the urgent national issue of knife crime with his ‘Don’t Stop Your Future’ campaign and echoed the Mayor’s long-standing call to change the law.

Tackling violence in the capital is the Mayor’s top priority and he has provided record investment in the Met from City Hall and established London’s first-ever Violence Reduction Unit. The number of homicides, gun crime and the number of young people being injured with knives have all fallen in London since 2016. This is despite massive government cuts to policing and youth services over the last decade.*

The causes of violent crime are extremely complex and wide-ranging, including inequality, social alienation, mental ill-health and a lack of opportunity, and the Mayor remains ready to work with Government and partners to drive down all forms of violent crime.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “It is simply unacceptable that zombie-style knives and machetes are still on the streets of London and the UK eight years after Ministers first proposed banning the sale of the blades. We’ve repeatedly been promised action, but instead it’s harder for a teenager to buy a lottery ticket than a zombie knife while we’ve seen a merry-go-round of Home Secretaries failing to deliver. These unacceptable delays must end and I urge the Home Secretary to urgently bring forward and toughen up this legislation to finally end the scourge of these weapons on our streets.

“I’m committed to doing all I can to tackle violence and keep Londoners safe, and am proud of the progress that has been made thanks to City Hall’s record investment in the Met and London’s Violence Reduction Unit, but we need Ministers to use their powers to help us. I stand ready to work with Government as we build a safer London for everyone.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

MOPAC’s ‘A Problem Profile of Violence, Gangs And Young People’ in September 2022 found that the use of combat/machete/Rambo style knives, are a key driver of teenage violence, in particular homicides. It noted that 82 per cent of teenage homicides committed in the previous two years involved the use of a combat/machete/Rambo style knives. https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/Serious%20youth%20violence%20problem%20profile.pdf

* In 2020/21, local authority spending on youth services in England totalled £379m. This represents £1.1bn cut in youth services funding over ten years in England, with real-terms expenditure down 74 percent from 2010/11’s £1.48bn spend. In London over £36 million has been cut from annual youth service budgets between 2011-12 and 2021-22, a fall of 44 per cent. The Government has chronically underfunded the Met since 2010, cutting police funding by £1bn. Ministers have also refused to provide enough funding to cover the cost of the Met’s unique national policing responsibilities, such as managing state events and large-scale protests in our capital city. 

Homicides committed using a knife or other sharp instrument (68) and homicides committed using a firearm (8) are both lower than any year since 2016 and burglary is down 19 per cent and overall gun crime down 20 per cent since Sadiq became Mayor.

Since his re-election in 2021, the Mayor has invested record amounts to support more than 300,000 young people access positive opportunities.

Over the last two year London’s Violence Reduction Unit has invested in more than 150,000 positive opportunities. Since the VRU was set up in 2019, there has been a 22 per cent reduction in homicides, 20 per cent fall in knife crime with injury for those aged under-25, and a 16 per cent reduction in robbery. [Compared to November 2018 when the set-up of the VRU was announced.]

The Mayor has also invested £34 million to support 100,000 disadvantaged young people access mentoring opportunities by the end of 2024. So far over 65,000 young people, including those at risk of crime, have accessed mentoring over the last two years.

The Mayor is continuing to take action by supporting our hardworking police officers, expanding neighbourhood policing and funding 500 additional Police Community Support Officers who will be embedded in neighbourhoods across London, playing a big role in reducing crime further, rebuilding community relations and public trust in the police.

A Government consultation was held between July and October 2019 on The National Lottery etc. Act 1993. From October 2021, it became illegal for anyone under 18 to play the National Lottery or any related gambling game, with shops banned from selling any lottery products.