Jail knife carriers, urges Cameron

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Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced last month that anyone over 16 caught with an illegal knife should be prosecuted, rather than escaping with a caution.

But Mr Cameron said this did not go far enough, and there should now be a presumption that the automatic punishment was a jail sentence.

According to Home Office figures, 17% of people prosecuted for carrying a knife went to prison in 2006, compared with 6% in 1996, and the average sentence length has increased by almost a third over the same period.

After a string of high-profile knife murders which have seen 18 young people die in London alone this year, Mr Cameron said knife crime was now a problem of "epidemic proportions" in the UK.

He told The Sun: "We have to send the strongest possible message that carrying a knife is completely unacceptable in Britain, end of subject. The Government should say not just there is a presumption you will be prosecuted if you carry a knife, but that there is a presumption you will go to jail.

"It is not a minor offence. There is no excuse for carrying a knife when you walk out of your door."

Mr Cameron stressed that police must exercise "common sense" and people carrying penknives for angling or bringing kitchen or garden equipment home from shops should not be prosecuted.

"This is about kitchen knives stuffed down the front of tracksuits," he said. "We're talking about mainly young people carrying knives as part of a culture. That culture has to stop."

Mr Cameron has previously called for greater understanding of young people, prompting headlines suggesting he wanted to "hug a hoodie". But he said: "When they step over the line, I'm a Tory. I believe in tough responses, in the law coming down on people like a ton of bricks."