‘I can’t stay silent’: Idris Elba calls for ban on ‘zombie knives’ and machetes in new campaign to end youth knife crime
8 January 2024, 10:54 | Updated: 8 January 2024, 15:59
Idris Elba has called for an immediate ban on the sale of ‘zombie knives’ and machetes in a new campaign to reduce knife crime.
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The star is launching a campaign, named Don’t Stop Your Future, to call for an immediate ban on so-called zombie knives and machetes after a spate of stabbings in the UK.
Elba has criticised politicians for not giving the issue "the focus it deserves” as the Home Office announced plans to tighten the law last summer, but the legislation is yet to be approved by parliament.
Figures for England and Wales from July 2022 to June 2023 show that around 247 people lost their lives to knife crime.
Zombie knives are defined as weapons with a “cutting edge, a serrated edge and images or words suggesting they are used for violence”.
The star is launching the campaign in Parliament Square in London on Monday.
It will see neatly folded outfits laid across the parliament square grass, each outfit to represent someone who has died as a result of knife crime in the UK.
Speaking to LBC, Elba urged the government to get the legislation moving.
He said: “For me now, launching this campaign, what can be done different is that we can act with the vigour of the new year, new energy.
“I’m really encouraging the government to really take the legislation they announced about banning zombie knives, samurais and machetes and really getting it done. It’s been five months since the announcement, let’s get it banned.”
Idris Elba speaks to LBC on his new campaign
Elba also said of the campaign: “I can't stay silent as more young lives are lost to these brutal and heartless crimes.
“As school returns, too many young people will not be joining their classmates and too many grieving families have lost a young person they love in recent years.
“Young people are our future, their potential deserves to be met, not taken away by violence.
“Parliament has repeatedly not given this issue the focus it deserves, and our political leaders need to prioritise it now.
“As well as an immediate ban on zombie knives and machetes, we need to give young people more of a reason not to carry a weapon in the first place.
“That means investing in the services that address the root causes of violent crime.”
It follows the recent death of 16-year-old Harry Pitman who was stabbed to death just moments before midnight on New Year’s Eve.
He had been waiting for London’s New Year fireworks at Primrose Hill in Camden when he was stabbed.
Elba is also set to release a song called Knives Down as part of the campaign effort.
Patrick Green, chief executive of anti-knife crime charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, said: “Idris's Don't Stop Your Future campaign is a vital and much-needed intervention to shine a spotlight on serious youth violence, which has been neglected for too long.
“It's horrifying that hardly a day goes by without the tragic news of someone being hurt, maimed, or even killed with a machete or zombie knife.”
Since the government announced plans to toughen measures, several teenagers have fallen victim to knife crime - including Elianne Andam, 15, who was stabbed on her way to school in Croydon and Alfie Lewis, 15, who was stabbed in Leeds.
Zombie knives were added to a list of prohibited offensive weapons in 2016 but Labour has said a loophole means the weapons can still be sold online.
