The home secretary has defended the Government’s record on tackling knife crime as he announced next steps to ban zombie-style knives. James Cleverly met police chiefs in Kent to discuss youth violence prevention projects and joined officers on a foot patrol of Gravesend town centre. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 We have already taken action to make the carrying of zombie knives illegal.
00:06 When I became Home Secretary I made the immediate decision to go further,
00:11 to put forward this secondary legislation to support what we've already done
00:16 to make the possession of zombie knives illegal and to close the loophole.
00:20 So I'm very pleased we're taking action now
00:23 and will be determined to get these knives off the streets.
00:26 We have made it clear to the police that we expect them,
00:29 in fact we demand that they pursue every reasonable line of inquiry.
00:34 When someone has been the victim of crime they deserve to have a police response.
00:39 We've made that very clear to the police leadership.
00:41 That will be something that happens now as a standard
00:45 and we'll be holding the leadership of the police to account
00:48 for doing what is, I think, what they want to do and that's to pursue criminals.
00:52 We have seen a reduction in crime.
00:54 We have a plan to drive it down further. That plan is working.
00:58 We're determined to take these knives off the streets.
01:02 That is what I'm here discussing in Kent.
01:04 That is why we've laid that legislation to take zombie knives permanently off the streets.