The Government's ‘Serious Violence Strategy’ is neither serious nor a strategy

Responding to the Home Affairs select committee report into the youth violence epidemic, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Ed Davey MP said "Youth violence is an epidemic, and the Home Affairs Committee is absolutely right to say that the Conservative Government's response is woefully inadequate. As this report makes clear, the Government's 'Serious Violence Strategy' is neither serious nor a strategy. Tory Ministers pay lip service to a public health approach, but don't seem to even know what it means.

Ed added "To make matters worse, we now have Boris Johnson pledging to dramatically expand suspicion-less Stop & Search - a tactic that didn't work against knife crime when he was Mayor of London and won't work now. More Stop & Search will only waste police time and erode young people's trust in the police, undermining the very community policing we need to tackle violent crime. Far too many young lives are being ruined by violence, and the Liberal Democrats demand better. We demand a proper public health approach, including a big increase in government funding for youth services, to provide young people with a positive alternative to gangs and violence."