Labour’s knife crime policy like putting collar on XL Bully, says victim’s friend

Labour’s promises to tackle knife crime are like “putting a collar on an XL Bully” dog, a BBC Question Time audience member said on Thursday’s (27 June) episode.

The party’s manifesto says they aim to halve knife crime in a decade and pledges that every young person caught in possession of a knife will be referred to a youth offending team and will receive a plan to prevent reoffending, with penalties including curfews, tagging, and custody.

Steven Rhodes, whose friend Tom Ellis died after was stabbed in Nuneaton on 8 June, described Labour’s plans to tag offenders as “like putting a collar on an XL Bully... it can still bite you.”