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Bosses at Amazon Marketplace, eBay and Instagram may face prison sanctions for permitting the sale of unlawful knives on their on-line platforms beneath Labour proposals.
The Opposition celebration will urge the Government to close the “glaring loopholes” in its plans to sort out knife crime.
Ministers are introducing new legal guidelines to outlaw zombie-style weapons, with the ban due to come into pressure in September – making it unlawful to possess, promote, manufacture or transport the blades.
Law-breaking on-line platforms who revenue from these unlawful gross sales are being let off with a slap on the wrist as an alternative of going through prison sanctions
Shadow policing minister Alex Norris
But Labour will use an Opposition Day debate on Tuesday to name on the Government to go additional by together with ninja swords in the ban and making tech executives chargeable for unlawful weapons offered on their on-line marketplaces.
Sir Keir Starmer has promised to close loopholes and finish caveats in a “total crackdown” on the supply of knives on UK streets.
The Labour chief final month met the household of Ronan Kanda, a 16-year-old who was killed by two 17-year-olds in 2022 utilizing a ninja sword purchased on-line utilizing a faux identify and picked up from a Post Office.
The former director of public prosecutions pledged to conduct a assessment of on-line knife gross sales to strengthen ID necessities and checks on parcels by Royal Mail and Border Force in an effort to clamp down on the illegal provide of harmful weapons to under-18s.
A Labour authorities would additionally launch a £100 million programme aimed toward figuring out and supporting younger folks vulnerable to being drawn into violent crime.
Any younger individual caught with a knife may additionally face curfews, tagging or different sanctions.
Labour is looking on Tory MPs to again these proposals in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Shadow policing minister Alex Norris mentioned: “Knife crime destroys lives and leaves families and communities reeling.
“The Government has a duty to do everything it can to stop these dangerous weapons getting into the hands of teenagers and those who would do harm.
“Dangerous weapons like ninja swords which have been used to kill teenagers like Ronan Kanda are still available on Britain’s streets. Still, law-breaking online platforms who profit from these illegal sales are being let off with a slap on the wrist instead of facing criminal sanctions.
“Labour wants to close these glaring loopholes in the Government’s plans and are asking the Conservatives and other parties to vote with us to do so.”
A Home Office spokesman mentioned: “The UK has some of the strongest anti-knife laws in the world, and since 2019 we have taken 120,000 knives off our streets, but we are determined to do more to end this senseless violence.
“Just weeks ago, we banned zombie-style knives and machetes and we will not hesitate to take further action based on the advice of police chiefs and frontline officers.
“We are also toughening sentences for anyone caught with a banned weapon or found selling knives to under-18s, and are giving police new powers to seize any knife if they believe it might be used in criminality.”
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