Plan to fine social media bosses over knife adverts 'not enough' to stop deaths, say families

Social media bosses could be fined if they fail to stop the sale of knives, as ITV News Anglia's Hannah Kings reports

Families of knife crime victims say the government is not acting fast enough to stop the sale of weapons and prevent more people from being killed.

It comes after the government announced new proposals to fine social media bosses up to £10,000 if they fail to stop illegal knives being advertised on their sites.

The Home Office said making senior technology executives “personally liable” would help combat the “unacceptable use of social media and online marketplaces to market illegal weapons and glorify violence”.

Sheetal Lodhia's nephew Ashish Nahar died of a single stab wound to the heart after being attacked in Jubilee Park in Bedford last year.

Mrs Lodhia said the government is not acting fast enough and it was costing lives.

"It makes me angry, so angry," she said. "In Bedfordshire alone there's been so many stabbings since Ashish, so many, and so many that have led to actual death.

"Yes (they say) there's so much being done about knife crime, but really, is there? I can't see it."

The government's announcement is the latest step in efforts by ministers to meet Labour’s manifesto pledge of halving knife crime levels over the next decade.

It comes after legislation came into force in September to ban zombie-style blades, which also covers the manufacture, import, sales and supply of the weapons.

Mrs Lodhia welcomed the move, but said the government should be moving faster.

She added: "Look how quickly we found a cure for covid? Knife crime has been going on for years and years and years and we are still here in the process of banning knives.

"Why is it taking so long? Children's lives are being ruined, parents lives, so many people's lives are being ruined by this horrific crime. Wake up and do something and do it quicker."

It is a view that is echoed by Julie Taylor from Chelmsford whose grandson Liam Taylor died after being stabbed in Writtle, Essex, in 2020.

She said: "As a bereaved family member, everything takes so long, and everyone who's killed, you feel their pain.

"You feel the pain of the new person that's been killed and their family because you know what they're suffering."

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said perpetrators “must face the full force of the law” as she announced the “tough new sanctions”.

She added: “The epidemic of knife crime that has grown over the last decade is devastating families and communities right across the country.

“That’s why this government has set out an unprecedented mission to halve knife crime over the next decade and today we’re taking determined action to get lethal blades off Britain’s streets.”

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