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Youth Violence (London)

I will keep my remarks short, Mr. Olner. I thank the hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) for securing the debate and emphasising that people across the community in London are rising up to try to find a means of solving this significant problem. In my constituency, interesting and good work has been done by young people who want to make an input in that debate. I particularly want to mention Eliza Rebeiro, who is 15 years old and runs the lives not knives campaign, and also Michael Castle. Both emphasise the importance, as did the hon. Gentleman, of not demonising young people and of recognising that they have a contribution to make to the debate. As an MP I have visited families in Croydon who have suffered the loss of children through knife crime. Unfortunately, Croydon has the justified reputation of having the highest number of knife killings in this country, and the destruction to those families is especially heart wrenching. The parents of Oliver Kingonzila have lost another son this year through a heart attack, and in many ways they will also suffer the sadness of seeing their other son deported after finishing a prison sentence, so they are being punished once again. I am also mindful of the extremely good work being done by the co-ordination between Croydon council and the Metropolitan Police Service in coming up with many solutions to tackle the issue. It is often forgotten that the Government put in place good architecture to encourage working between different parts of the public sector, and that has very much come to fruition in the work that has taken place in Croydon.