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Knives: MP slow to act
• IT was good to read that MP Jeremy Corbyn has been helping the family of Martin Dinnegan take their campaign to rid Islington’s streets of knife crime to the Prime Minister. I would like to thank him very much for the help he has given the Dinnegan family.
One issue in their campaign that is particularly important is imposing tougher sentences for people who carry knives. This should be the same as sentences for carrying guns.
In November 2005, as the Violent Crime Reduction Bill passed through Parliament, the Liberal Democrats tabled an amendment to raise the penalty for carrying a knife from two to seven years, to make the penalty the same as for carrying a gun.
The Conservative Party also tabled an amendment, not going as far, but raising the sentence to five years.
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats voted for an increase, but the entire Labour party, including both Islington MPs, Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry, voted against this proposal. Why didn’t our local Labour MPs support an increased penalty in Parliament when they had the chance? Instead, they voted to keep the penalty at a mere two years imprisonment.
It is a real shame it took a tragic murder to bring this issue home to Mr Corbyn. If the sentence for carrying knives had been raised in 2005 who knows which tragedies might have been prevented.
I welcome Mr Corbyn’s change of heart, but why did it take him this long to realise the scale of the problem? Has Ms Thornberry reconsidered her position?
CLLR MARISHA RAY
Lib Dem executive member for community safety
Town Hall, N1
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