Sarah Jones, the MP for Croydon Central, last night demanded “action not words” following the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Croydon town centre.

Police cordoned off the crime scene on North End last night

The 17-year-old victim, who has not yet been identified by police, was knifed outside the Whitgift Centre on North End at around 7.30pm last night. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The boy’s parents were reportedly with their son shortly after the stabbing.

It is the 15th teenager killed through knife crime in London in 2017.

Last month, Jones arranged for a debate on knife crime in the House of Commons and she has set up a cross-party parliamentary group on the issue.

She said, “I am so very sad that yet another young boy has lost his life to knife crime in Croydon. All my thoughts are with his family and friends and I can only imagine how I would feel if he was my own.

“We await more details, but time and time again we’ve said ‘enough is enough’ as knife crime has doubled in a year. Knife crime has become a public health crisis amongst our young, well over one thousand young people were stabbed in London last year and it is rising across the UK.

“Now, we demand action, not words. I’ve been pushing the Home Secretary to prioritise this epidemic amongst our young. It can’t be fixed with short-term thinking. We need a 10-year, cross-government strategy tying together policing and justice with an equally important focus on early stage interventions and community support, and recognition of new factors such as the influence social media.

“But tonight, in Croydon, I am praying for a life lost, a family devastated, and a community in shock.”

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