Jail knife carriers, says Cameron
Anyone caught carrying a knife without a good excuse should expect to go to prison, Tory leader David Cameron says.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has argued that anyone over 16 caught with an illegal knife should be prosecuted, rather than escaping with a caution.
But Mr Cameron says the presumption should go further - so anyone convicted of carrying a knife should be jailed.
Jack Straw says ministers will review sentencing guidelines on knife crime when they come into force on 4 August.
Currently, about a third of those found with offensive weapons receive only a caution or final warning.
‘No excuse’
The Conservative leader spoke out at the launch of his party’s campaign in the Glasgow East by-election, which he dubbed "the broken society by-election".
There have been a number of high-profile knife murders in London recently; 19 young people have met a violent death so far this year.
The latest victim, 14-year-old David Idowu, died on Monday three weeks after being stabbed in south-east London.
According to Home Office figures, 17% of people prosecuted for carrying a knife went to prison in 2006, compared with 6% in 1996. The average sentence length has increased by almost a third over the same period.
Mr Cameron said knife crime was a problem of "epidemic proportions" in the UK.
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