It’s a gaffe day with Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot and now the spotlight is on policing minister Diana Johnson. The Labour MP took to the airwaves this morning to sell Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s announcement that the maximum prison sentence for people selling knives to children under 18 will be increased in light of the Southport murders – from six months to two years in prison. Golly.
But there’s more to it than that. Not only will those directly making the sales be punished, company CEOs are in the firing line too. If, for example, under-18s are found to have purchased knives from online shopping sites like Amazon, the organisation’s chairman Jeff Bezos could face the consequences. LBC’s Nick Ferrari pressed Johnson on this point: could bosses like Bezos face jail time? In short, yes. An enthusiastic Johnson responded:
We’re very clear that if there are sales of knives to under-18s, we are increasing the sentence from six months to two years.
