Sadiq Khan warns government’s failure to ban zombie knives is a ‘betrayal’ to young people

Sadiq Khan has warned that the government’s failure to deliver the Criminal Justice Bill and ban zombie knives is a “betrayal” of the safety of young people and communities.

City Hall said the mayor wrote to Home Secretary James Cleverly earlier this year 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 Criminal Justice Bill was one of the bills that failed to be pushed through Parliament in time before Rishi Sunak announced the general election last week. 

Mr Khan labelled the government’s failure to pass legislation as typifying their legacy of “dither, delay and inaction”.

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City Hall says the decision by the government means that not only will the tougher laws around zombie knives now not be introduced, vital legislation around keeping our neighbourhoods safe, introducing tougher sentencing for sexual and violent criminals and improving public confidence in policing, will also now not go ahead,

Mayor Khan said: “The government’s failure to deliver the Criminal Justice Bill is a betrayal of the safety of our young people and our communities. After years of delaying vital legislation that has allowed these dangerous weapons to continue being sold on our streets and having talked the talk about banning zombie-knives for years, they have failed to deliver on their promises. This typifies their legacy of dither, delay and inaction.

 “I’m clear that one death at the hands of these weapons is one too many, and earlier this year I wrote to the Home Secretary, urging a total ban on zombie-style knives and machetes once and for all. But it's clear my calls, along with the voices of survivors, loved ones of victims and campaigners, have frustratingly fallen on deaf ears. The government is not taking this crisis seriously enough. These weapons have no other use than to cause maximum harm. They must be banned.”

London’s Victims Commissioner, Claire Waxman has also expressed her disappointment in the bill not being passed.

Ms Waxman OBE, said: “The failure of the government to follow through with the Criminal Justice Bill is a betrayal to everyone who has campaigned tirelessly to get victims of crime the justice they deserve, including many victims and families who have already been failed in the most unimaginable way by a justice system not fit for purpose.

 “The government refused to bring these much-needed changes into the Victims and Prisoners Bill which passed in the final hours of this Parliamentary term. Instead, they kicked their commitments into the long grass and made false promises to victims on a piece of legislation that now won’t see the light of day.

 “These commitments included compelling offenders to attend their sentencing, a promise I saw the government make to Farah Naz - Zara Aleena’s aunt, in a meeting, so that no other family would have to suffer in the way they had. The government also made a concession to my calls to extend Jade’s Law and promised families that they would be stopping convicted rapists maintaining control over their children’s lives by suspending their parental rights.

“Victims and families will feel that these hard-fought commitments have amounted to nothing. It is a terrible blow to all of us who continue to campaign for a better, fairer justice system. I urge the next government to deliver these overdue commitments as quickly as possible”.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “We will take no lectures from Sadiq Khan on the issue of crime. Knife crime has risen by a shocking 20% last year in Labour-run London.

 “In fact, Khan was the only Police & Crime Commissioner to miss police recruitment targets, failing to recruit 1,000 extra officers even with the money from the Conservative government available for recruitment.

 “We banned zombie knives in 2016 and cyclone knives in 2019 and the sale of illegal knives online is a priority in the Online Safety Act. The choice in this election is clear, stick to the plan with Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives who have driven down crime by 54% since 2010, or go back to square one with Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party who have no plan to cut crime”.

The general election will take place on July 4.