Knife crime tops agenda at Westminster youth summit

Calls for tougher action to combat teenage knife crime were high on the agenda at a ground-breaking conference for young people.

More than 1,200 teenagers gathered for the high-profile event, which was set up to boost youth participation in political life.

The meeting at Westminster Central Hall culminated with the filming of a special edition of BBC1's Question Time, produced by eight winners of the Schools Question Time Challenge.

Sixth-formers from one of London's top grammars, The Tiffin Girls' School in Kingston, were among those taking part last night. Jeevan Kaur, 18, from the Tiffin team, said knife crime and lowering the voting age topped the list of concerns for young people attending the event.

"Knife crime is a really big issue because it's affecting a lot of young people in London," she said. Teenagers wanted to know how knife crime could be stopped and the real extent of the problem. "Some people are saying maybe we need to get harsh, with curfews."

Team-mate Aaraby Ragavan, 17, said she did not understand the mentality of people who claimed carrying knives was essential for self-defence. "There are other ways of dealing with problems," she said.

BBC news presenter Huw Edwards, who chaired the conference, said young people's concerns about knife crime emerged as a "very clear" theme.

"They were saying, 'We have a problem, it needs to be tackled, we don't think people are punished hard enough,' and all these points were loudly applauded."

Edwards was also impressed with how the audience engaged with complex issues facing society. "We have a generation who are enthusiastic about accepting responsibilities with their rights, which has got to be good," he added.

Other speakers included BBC Director-General Mark Thompson, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith and government minister Ed Miliband.

The conference - organised by the Institute for Citizenship and supported by the Evening Standard - will produce a Young Citizens' Action Plan to be delivered to Gordon Brown and Boris Johnson in October.

The event followed the death on Monday of 14-year-old David Idowu. He was the 19th teenager killed in London this year. The Walworth Academy pupil died in hospital three weeks after being stabbed in Southwark and days before he was due to give a major speech against youth violence.