Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has claimed the UK is “probably” not the country he wants to raise his children in.
The chairman of Matchroom Sport expressed concern for the safety of his own children amid a series of stabbing incidents that have shocked the nation, including the death of teenager Daniel Anjorin, just 10 miles from his Essex home.
Mr Hahn claimed the UK has taken a laissez-faire approach to tackling knife crime and went on to compare it to draconian Saudi Arabia, which claims to have “zero crime”.
“A young child lost his life in Hainaut, 20 minutes from my house,” he said. “My grandmother and grandfather live around the corner. And the next day it was as if nothing had happened.”
“Things are snowballing in our country and it's becoming a scary situation, but no one is doing anything, as if we've become desensitized to it.”
Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has said Britain is “probably” not the country he wants to bring up his children in.
The 44-year-old, pictured here with his wife Chloe, says the UK must do more to tackle knife crime.
Mr Hahn told the Telegraph that people in Saudi Arabia, unlike young people in the UK, fear the consequences of carrying a weapon and he believes those who carry knives for “approval” need to understand that they will go to prison if caught.
“If you're in a gang and you want to carry a knife to look cool, that's fine, but what about someone who's prepared to take someone's life with it?”
He added that the UK needed to take “extreme” action and believed it was the only way to tackle the problem.
British teenagers are now twice as likely to die from a stabbing than they were 10 years ago.
Knife crime has increased by 54% since London Mayor Sadiq Khan took office in 2016. Figures released in April by the Office for National Statistics also showed knife crime is growing at its fastest rate in five years, up 20% in the last year alone.
Knife crime has increased by 54% since Mayor Khan took office in 2016, the fastest increase in five years.
This graph shows the number of murders each year during Mayor Khan's term.
Sadiq Khan was elected Mayor of London in May 2016. This cumulative graph shows the number of murders in the second half of 2016 and each year for the following eight years.
Police in the capital recorded a total of 14,626 knife crimes last year – an average of 40 a day and up by a fifth on 2022.
Gun crime is also on the rise, with 1,208 cases recorded in 2023, an increase of more than 200 from the previous year.
Many people put the blame squarely on Mr Khan, with Police Minister Chris Philp blaming the cutback in stop and go alerts.
The Metropolitan police's use of stop and search powers has fallen by 44 percent in the past two years, and the number of subsequent arrests has fallen by 28 percent.
The mayor has criticised the tactic and previously vowed to “do everything in our power to further reduce the use of this tactic” over concerns it targets ethnic minorities.
Mr Phillip told X that “fewer knives on the streets” had “resulted in” an increase in knife crime.
Knife crime in the capital disproportionately affects young people, as evidenced by the tragic number of teenage murder victims.
