Only 10 out of 74 London MPs attend crucial knife debate

The vast majority of the capital's 74 elected MPs said they had made other plans or had meetings to attend, though many were reluctant to go into details.

The Evening Standard is campaigning for a five-point plan to protect teenagers from knives. One key demand - for fewer cautions and more prosecutions when youngsters are caught with knives - has been embraced by Gordon Brown.

The rest of the 646 MPs from around the country were even thinner on the ground on a sunny Thursday afternoon when there were no compulsory votes. At times in the debate, the number of MPs on all sides of the chamber fell to just 12.

One London MP with a good excuse for not attending was Jon Cruddas, whowas taking part in an Operation Blunt exercise with police in his Dagenham constituency, which involved talking to youngsters about the dangers of knives and asking them about their experiences.

Hornchurch MP James Brokenshire, a shadow home affairs minister, said: "The scourge of knife crime has touched the lives of too many people across the country."

Brent South's Dawn Butler said there were more than 200 knife crimes a year in Brent: "What's different is that the victims are becoming younger and younger." She said "postcode wars" and "road codes" left youngsters too frightened to enter neighbouring areas.

Tom Brake (Carshalton), the Liberal Democrat spokesman, said: "These families are never going to recover from this. Parliament-cannot stand idly by while knife crime takes the lives of our young people.

"We need more research into the causes of knife crime, we need better deterrents, better detection, more enforcement and indeed tougher sentences."

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker, whose father was a London police officer, admitted the courts were failing to mete out the maximum sentences for knife crimes. He said: "It has to be said that the courts do need to look at the availability of the four-year sentence to them when they make their sentencing decision."

Colchester MP Bob Russell spoke of the grief suffered by a family in his constituency and admitted: "More should have been done a long time ago."