Actor Idris Elba has suggested more action can be taken to make kitchen knives safer to reduce stabbings across the country.
The 52-year-old was speaking ahead of the release on Wednesday of Idris Elba: Our Knife Crime Crisis, a documentary which sees the Luther star spend 12 months exploring the reality of the UK’s stabbing epidemic.
Elba claimed that around 25 per cent of stabbings are perpetrated using knives commonly found at home, and “areas of innovation” could help reduce this.
“Not all kitchen knives need to have a point on them, that sounds like a crazy thing to say,” he told BBC Radio 4. “But you can still cut your food without the point on your knife, which is an innovative way to look at it.”
There were more 50,000 serious knife crime offences recorded in England in the year ending June 2024. London has the highest rate of serious knife crimes.
Between April 2023 and April 2024, 509 children under the age of 17 were hospitalised for injuries from knives and other sharp items, according to the Youth Endowment Fund.
The number of offences classed as “possession of an article with a blade or point” stood at 27,553 offences in the 12 months to June 2024, down 4 per cent year on year from 28,582.
“I’ve got three kids,” Elba said. “As a parent, that’s always going through your mind.”
In September 2024, it became illegal to own, sell or manufacture zombie knives and machetes in the UK.
However, many illegal weapons remain on UK streets and have been used in recent violent crimes.
In the BBC film, Elba said young people in London gangs are “not big and scary”, adding it is “sad” that society has “turned our back on them”.
The actor and activist spoke about “someone very close to me” who had gone into a gang at the same time that he went into acting. He said he had spoken to him about the documentary.
The Hackney-born star said he had told him “you’re doing the right thing” but that he “isn’t as hopeful or optimistic as I am”.
Elba went on to say that he felt big tech and social media needed to take more responsibility for the issue.
He added: “When it comes to big tech, there needs to be accountability within their own policies, and their policies need to be educated and driven by what society deems is right or wrong.
“It’s great that you’re a big company, you make a lot of money, got lots of social media followers, that’s fantastic.
“But by the way, we don’t like knives, we’re not going to tolerate you advertising knives to young people, please.
“We don’t like porn, we don’t like this, we don’t like bully dogs, it can be done in a society, and in my opinion, where democracy leads, it takes a village.”
The BBC film sees Elba meet prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, who said that his party would commit to halving knife crime if elected, and the King, where the pair discussed solutions to the problem with some of the young people most affected by youth violence.
The hour-long programme will air on BBC One and iPlayer on Wednesday 29 January at 9pm.
