The actor and musician Idris Elba has called for the immediate banning of machetes and “zombie” knives, as well as for more funding for youth services, as part of a campaign to end youth knife violence.
The star of Luther and The Wire is also releasing a song and will launch the campaign, called Don’t Stop Your Future, with an installation in Parliament Square in London on Monday.
“I can’t stay silent as more young lives are lost to these brutal and heartless crimes,” Elba said. “As school returns, too many young people will not be joining their classmates and too many grieving families have lost a young person they love in recent years. Young people are our future, their potential deserves to be met, not taken away by violence.
“Parliament has repeatedly not given this issue the focus it deserves, and our political leaders need to prioritise it now. As well as an immediate ban on zombie knives and machetes, we need to give young people more of a reason not to carry a weapon in the first place. That means investing in the services that address the root causes of violent crime.”
Last August, the Home Office announced that tougher measures on machetes and zombie-style knives would be introduced. Machetes and knives designed to look intimidating and threatening would be made illegal, while the maximum penalty for the importation, manufacturing, possession and sale of these weapons would be increased to two years.
Progress on passing the new legislation has been slow and several high-profile incidents have occurred since; including the killing of the schoolgirl Elianne Andam. The 15-year-old was stabbed to death in September on her way to school in Croydon, south London, with what was believed to be a large zombie knife. A 17-year-old boy has been charged with her murder.
The campaign will fill Parliament Square with neatly folded outfits, with each bundle representing someone who has died through knife crime on UK streets. The display intends to be a respectful tribute to the lives lost, while also shining a spotlight on the scale of the issue.
Elba is also releasing the song Knives Down, which aims to give a voice to those most affected by knife crime and to use the power of music to raise awareness.
Don’t Stop Your Future has produced a series of billboards highlighting the risk across the country, including in London, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield.
Alongside the immediate ban and focus on youth services, Elba is calling on the government to convene a coalition to end knife crime: a cross-party, cross-governmental working group that brings together stakeholders who have a role to play in tackling the issue.
Figures for England and Wales from July 2022 to June 2023 show that 247 people lost their lives due to knife crime.
Those numbers do not include teenagers such as Alfie Lewis, 15, who was fatally stabbed in Leeds in November. or Harry Pitman, 16, who was killed on New Year’s Eve. They will be included in the next set of figures to be published.
Patrick Green, the chief executive of the anti-knife crime charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, said: “Idris’s Don’t Stop Your Future campaign is a vital and much needed intervention to shine a spotlight on serious youth violence, which has been neglected for too long. It’s horrifying that hardly a day goes by without the tragic news of someone being hurt, maimed, or even killed with a machete or zombie knife.”
