MP Paulette Hamilton's nephew was stabbed in a horrific attack (Image: Darren Quinton/Birmingham Live)
An MP whose nephew was stabbed in lawless Birmingham for being in the wrong postcode area has admitted she fears for her family. Paulette Hamilton, MP for the city’s Erdington constituency, said: “He was coming home from his Saturday job and got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it nearly cost him his life.”
She admitted: “It just brings a different level of fear. If it could happen to my nephew, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, it could happen to my grandchildren or anyone else.” Her nephew is just one of the young victims of a wave of violence in the West Midlands, which has the highest knife-crime rate in the country and saw 410 people admitted to hospital with puncture wounds in one year, including 175 under the age of 25.
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In one shocking incident, 12-year-old Leo Ross died after being stabbed as he walked home from school on January 21. A 14-year-old boy is due to appear at Birmingham Crown Court on 22 April to enter pleas to charges of murder, possessing a bladed article, and four unconnected counts of assault.
West Midlands Police, which covers Birmingham as well as Wolverhampton, Coventry and neighbouring towns, was in special measures until last September following a damning report by inspectors. It recorded 5,268 knife crimes between April 2023 and March 2024, a rate of 178 per 100,000 people.
Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council, which declared effective bankruptcy in 2023, has slashed funding for youth services by two thirds with youth centres sold off to raise funds.
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But Ms Hamilton said cuts had a devastating impact on the city.
“Yes we need sentences and punishment. But if someone gets to the stage of picking up a knife, they are not thinking about those consequences. We need to stop it getting to that stage.
“A lot of these young people haven’t got any role models and they have nowhere to go. Local services have been diminished. They have any mentors that can guide then down the right path.
“In my constituency we don’t have a single youth centre.”
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She added: “Some of these young people have never been past their postcode area. With my nephew, he was asked ‘what are you doing around here?’ Because he was in a postcode they thought he shouldn’t have been in.”
The council is Labour-run and the force’s police and crime commissioner is also a Labour politician but Ms Hamilton, a Labour MP, blamed funding cuts imposed by the previous Conservative-led government for the closure of youth services.
Police figures show that knife crime is falling but Ms Hamilton said this was not the perception of many people. “Knife crime seems to be growing. It seems to be getting closer to home.
“You don’t want this ever to come to your doorstep. It puts a completely different spin on it.
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“The figures show it is falling but I wonder if that simply means it is not being reported.”
She also highlighted the role of so-called county lines gangs based in Birmingham who recruit youngsters to sell drugs nationwide. Along with Liverpool, Manchester and London, Birmingham is a centre of the UK’s illegal drugs trade and a focus of Home Office’s County Lines taskforce.
Gangs recruit local youngsters and send them across the country to sell drugs in towns and smaller cities - but also fight vicious turf wars within the cities themselves.