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John Leech MP leads the fight against knife crime
August 7, 2008 12:00 AM
Manchester Withington's Liberal Democrat MP, John Leech, is leading the way in the fight against knife crime through his work with an influential parliamentary group.
Recent figures released as part of a British Crime Survey show that more than 350 knife crimes are committed each day in England and Wales, and John Leech is now taking a leading role in tackling the problem as part of his work within the All Party Parliamentary Group on Child and Youth Crime.
The group is leading an inquiry into knife crime and has been working with young people from across the UK to identify the causes of the problem and to come up with practical solutions to it. As part of this inquiry, Mr Leech recently arranged a successful visit to the Manchester-based youth project Reclaim, which encourages young people to avoid the path of gangs and crime.
Speaking about the visit, Mr Leech said:
"This Government's response to violent crime had been woefully inadequate, to the extent that knife crime is fast becoming the scourge of the modern British street."
"It is therefore vital that we tackle the issue head-on and show young people that real alternatives to crime and gangs exist, and the excellent work of groups like Reclaim help us to do this."
"The present situation whereby someone is threatened or wounded by a knife every four minutes cannot be allowed to continue, so through my work with the APPG on Child and Youth Crime we will be seeking to come up with workable, practical solutions to this most serious problem."
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