Labour urges SNP to 'see sense' on knives

Published on Sunday 17 May 2009 22:00

LABOUR yesterday demanded that justice secretary Kenny MacAskill "sees sense" and holds a national knife amnesty.

Richard Baker, Labour's justice spokesman, said a Scotland-wide amnesty in 2006 had collected almost 13,000 blades in just over a month. He contrasted that to the situation under the SNP, with First Minister Alex Salmond saying there had been 2,000 knives taken off the streets since May 2007.

Mr Baker said he had written to the justice secretary last month calling for a national amnesty, but that the request had been turned down.

He said: "Why won't the justice minister see sense? This smacks of political dogma getting in the way of tough action."

However, Mr MacAskill insisted that the Scottish Government was taking action to tackle the "scourge" of knife crime.

And he said it was a matter for the police and the Crown to determine whether there should be a national amnesty.

Meanwhile, SNP MSP Angela Constance accused senior QC Paul McBride of undermining his new political party's hard-line policy on knife crime.

Mr McBride, who recently defected from Labour to the Conservatives, yesterday said there should be a "presumption" of jail for committing knife crime.

Ms Constance suggested this was at odds with the party previously presenting its policy as being for mandatory sentences.