UK to treat knife crime 'like a disease'

Britain's knife crime epidemic has sparked a Cabinet dispute after Home Secretary Sajid Javid bowed to pressure and called for more money for police to tackle the problem.

The United Kingdom's chancellor, Philip Hammond, has insisted the police have enough money, despite calls for the Treasury to come up with more cash for frontline officers.

The chancellor said police chiefs should use "existing resources" to tackle the problem by diverting cash from other budgets.

Senior officers and police and crime commissioners had called for more money to pay for additional officers following a spate of fatal stabbings in major cities.

But Hammond said police must use money and officers from other parts of their forces to deal with the problem.

His comments come after the home secretary said ministers must listen to police leaders about knife crime.

On Wednesday, Javid called for knife crime to be treated "like a disease" after meeting police chiefs from seven forces most affected by violent crime.

But on Thursday, the chancellor told BBC Radio 4's Today program that there had to be a "surging of resources from other areas of policing activity into dealing with this spike in knife crime".

"That's what you do in any organization when you get a specific problem occurring in one area of the operation, you move resources to deal with that," Hammond said.

The prime minister announced she would host a summit "in the coming days" to tackle knife crime.

The talks between Javid and police chiefs followed a spate of fatal teenage stabbings which has prompted debate about falling police numbers.

He added: "I want serious violence to be treated by all parts of government, all parts of the public sector, like a disease and I want us to tackle it the same way — everyone would come together."

Chairwoman of the National Police Chiefs' Council Sara Thornton said the discussions had been "really constructive" and highlighted the need for extra police officers.

"We've agreed that, by the end of the week, we'll set out the scale of the investment required," she said.

Ahead of the meeting, spokespeople from a number of police bodies called for funding for more officers. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said there was "obviously" a link between violent crime and falling police numbers.

But May insisted there was "no direct correlation".

In a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, May and Javid clashed on how to handle knife crime as he demanded changes to stop and search powers.

On funding, May pointed out that the police were handed 460 million pounds ($603 million) more in the current financial year and will receive nearly 1 billion pounds extra next year.

Contact the writer at jonathan@mail.chinadailyuk.com