Actor Idris Elba calls for action over UK knife crime

LONDON: Actor Idris Elba on Monday urged the UK government to take urgent action to reduce knife crime, with public concern at mounting numbers of young people being injured or killed in stabbings.

Elba, who shot to fame as drugs kingpin Stringer Bell in the hit TV series “The Wire”, helped launch a campaign in London calling for a ban on knives. “I can´t stay silent as more young lives are lost to these brutal and heartless crimes,” he told reporters outside the UK parliament in central London.

On the grass in front of the legislature, piles of carefully folded clothes were laid out in line to represent those killed by knife crime. “We can´t let knife crime escalate, we have to put a stop to it,” said the 51-year-old Elba, who has written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling for a ban on bladed weapons such as machetes and “zombie” knives.

On Sunday, football clubs Arsenal and Liverpool abandoned their traditional red jerseys as part of the north London club´s “No More Red” campaign against youth violence.

Families of some of the victims of knife crime were applauded by the crowd at the Emirates stadium watching the FA Cup tie, which Arsenal lost. Some 250 people were killed in knife crime in England and Wales between July 2022 and June 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The sale of knives is strictly regulated in the UK but young people are still managing to arm themselves with large “zombie” knives, where one side is serrated and the other curved.