Priti Patel was today accused of letting violent crime drift after it emerged that the Home Office has not called a meeting of its Serious Violence Task Force for more than a year.
The decline of the unit tasked with tackling the most serious violence including stabbings was revealed in an Evening Standard interview with shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds.
He said: “The fact that the government’s flagship Serious Violence Taskforce hasn’t met for over a year, shows that the Tories have no clear idea for how they are going to tackle this growing crisis. They are out of ideas and the Home Secretary desperately needs to get a grip.
“The Tories have an appalling record on violent crime. On their watch we have seen violent crime rising in every part of the country, with robberies and knife homicides increasing.”
The lack of meetings was winkled out of the Government in written answers, in which ministers admitted they were now considering its role. Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said: “It last met on 26 June 2019.”
However, 2019 was the year in which London suffered a surge of knife crimes, with 90 people killed in stabbings. The capital recorded 169 offences involving a knife per 100,000 population in 2018/19, the worst in the country.
Standard Online asked the Home Office to respond to Mr Thomas-Symonds and a spokesperson replied with a statement that the Government had “introduced a wide range of measures to make our streets safer”.
The Home Office said: “Serious violence devastates lives and destroy neighbourhoods, which is why we have introduced a wide range of measures to make our streets safer and protect communities.
“We are recruiting 20,000 police officers over the next three years, and are providing the most substantial increase in police funding in a decade. The government has committed £176.5 million to the Serious Violence Fund over two years to address the drivers of serious violence and significantly bolster the police response in 18 Police Force areas most affected in England and Wales.”
The spokesman would not comment on the future of the task force and whether or not it was being wound up. It is understood from sources that violent crime is now being driven by a new cross-Whitehall Crime and Justice Taskforce, chaired by the Prime Minister.
Violent crime has risen in every part of the country over the past decade, including a 16 per cent increase in homicides involving a knife.
