Activists Push for Minimum Five-Year Prison Sentence for Knife Offenders in Response to Growing Violence on UK Streets

The knife crime crisis in Britain has escalated to the point where the country is on the brink of descending into a lawless dystopia if immediate measures are not implemented. 

That’s the chilling warning victims have today issued to Prime Minster Sir Keir Starmer as they demand tougher jail terms for knife thugs.

Campaigners are calling for mandatory five-year sentences for adults caught carrying blades on the street, and three years for youths.

It comes amid a ‘national emergency’ which has seen the scourge of knife crime spread to every corner of England and Wales. 

In urban areas, county lines drug syndicates and rival factions are engaging in violent conflicts, while young individuals in rural areas are carrying blades into educational institutions and committing acts of violence, including against minors in public areas. 

Norman Brennan, a former law enforcement official and the director of the Law and Order Foundation, an organization advocating for victims’ rights, has described the overwhelming wave of violence sweeping across Britain as having catastrophic consequences. 

Mr Brennan – who was almost stabbed to death tackling a burglar during his time as a London cop – has teamed up with publican influencer Adam Brooks, whose father was murdered by a machete gang, to call for tougher sentences. 

‘This is a national crisis. It is an emergency like I’ve never seen. We are heading to the abyss,’ he said. 

‘We have slipped into a tide of anarchy. There’s no police on the streets. The public don’t feel safe. Criminals walk around now feeling untouchable.

‘I predicted this knife crime epidemic 20 years ago. I’ve been warning governments of all political colours of the perfect storm that was coming – and now it’s here. It’s a tsunami… it’s a tide of bloodshed.’

The pair have launched a petition calling for change. In a matter of days, more than 32,000 people signed it. It needs 100,000 to be debated in parliament. 

Currently a person aged 18 or over who is convicted of a second knife offence faces a mandatory minimum sentence of six months imprisonment and at least a four-month detention and training order for 16- and 17-year-olds.

The maximum sentence for possession of a knife is four years.  

However, Norman and Adam hope harsher jail terms will act as a ‘deterrence’, and prevent youngsters from arming themselves with a knife and stabbing someone. 

For Adam, it’s an issue devastatingly close to his heart.  

The father-of-three runs the Three Colts pub in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, following in the footsteps of his dad, Alan – who was brutally murdered in July 1991.

Alan was the landlord at The Gunmakers Arms boozer and the Clydesdale pub when he was hacked to death by machete-wielding gangsters after barring a notorious group of drug dealers from his boozer days earlier.

Adam was just 11 when his father was slaughtered and said the impact of losing his ‘idol’ and ‘hero’ – a respected East End boxer – had ruined his life and sent him on a ‘suicide mission’ in his youth, picking fights with criminals and bouncers. 

‘There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think of my dad. That was in 1991. That was 34 years ago. It’s a pain that you feel for the rest of your life,’ Adam told MailOnline.

‘As a kid it messed me up…for a couple of years I was on a suicide mission. It’s like I was seeking out the most dangerous person I could have a row with.

‘I went on a bit of a kamikaze run for a few years, picking fights with doormen and gangsters and all sorts.

‘Now I’ve got a 15-year-old son and I’m petrified of what could happen to him… I’m that scared, if I had enough money I’d think about moving my children to another country.’

Speaking bluntly of the UK’s knife scourge, he said: ‘In certain areas, it’s a hellscape.’

Adam, who himself has been stabbed, said the devastating consequences knife crime can have on the families of the victims, was unimaginable. 

‘You’re inflicting pain on families and friends for the rest of their lives. But you’re also ruining your own life too and the lives of your family. There’s no upside to carrying knives,’ he added. 

Stark figures show knife crime continues to rise, with recent figures for England and Wales showing a staggering 50,973 offences being recorded in 2023/24 – marking an 80 per cent surge in the last 10 years, the Office For National Statistics said.

In London, there has been a dramatic 17.4 per cent hike as the capital reached a shameful 14-year high of 15,859 offences, up from 12,786 the year before. 

According to the Crime in England and Wales 2024 report, around 30 per cent of knife-enabled crime was recorded by the Metropolitan Police Service.

And in the quaint communities of Avon and Somerset, the region has seen a breathtaking 32 per cent explosion in knife crime. 

Even in some of the UK’s most desirable places to live, like Norwich and Guildford, aren’t immune to the modern menace of knife crime.

The counties they grace have seen a steep rise in knife-related offences over the last eight years – 196 per cent for Norfolk and an almost unbelievable 681 per cent for Surrey, home to Britain’s ‘stockbroker belt’.

While knife crime in both areas remains relatively low compared to the rest of the country, they are representative of a wider phenomenon that is worrying police and crime experts.

MailOnline’s analysis of police figures shows other English and Welsh counties that saw the highest rise in knife offences from 2015/16 to 2023/24 are also largely rural in character. 

In second place after Surrey was Gwent with a 240 per cent increase, followed by Norfolk and then Avon and Somerset (134 per cent).

‘We have a knife crime epidemic in this country and it is only getting worse,’ Mr Brooks added in a post on social media.

‘Our Government wants to do these silly propaganda stunts like rounding the edges of knives… Rounding the edges is never going to stop knife crime – it’s not even going to make the tiniest of difference.

‘It’s all for propaganda and all for brownie points. We need tough action; we need five-year mandatory sentences if you’re caught in public with a knife.

‘We need these knives off our streets and the only way that happens is through tough action and through deterrence; we need to up stop and search and make these people realise they can be stopped at any time and if they’re caught with a knife their going to prison for five years.

‘No ifs, no buts, no appeals – you’re caught with a knife… you’re going to go away. Say goodbye to your family and off you go because we need these knives off the street.’

As well as calling for harsher jail sentences, Mr Brennan and Mr Brooks are also demanding for mass stop and search powers to be ramped up, a new national education and mentor programme for children and for parents to take greater responsibility if their children are caught with a blade. 

A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police told MailOnline: ‘Tackling violence remains a top priority for the Met, with targeted activity occurring in across all parts of the organisation to tackle everything from organised groups who habitually use violence to facilitate their criminal enterprises to those causing harm in their neighbourhoods through anti-social behaviour and criminality.

‘The factors that contribute to people carrying and using knives are complex and require the collective effort of police, local partners, charities and our communities.

‘We have already seen some success, reducing the number of personal robberies by over 10 per cent, which makes up a large proportion of knife crime. We are also reducing the number of victims who are injured by knives and sharp objects specifically, and have achieved significant reductions of 18% less victims injured by violence.

‘We will continue to prioritise our activity and proactively target those causing the most harm.’

MailOnline approached the Home Office for comment.