How should the police and the politicians respond to this spate of murders?

With more than fifty murders in London already this year and knife crime up by 21% in England and Wales according to the latest figures, there’s a clear need for action on violent crime. As I write in The Sun this morning, the government’s long awaited violent crime reduction strategy is out next week.

The Home Secretary Amber Rudd briefed the Cabinet on this strategy a few weeks ago. Cabinet Ministers tell me that it is impressive but very much focused on early intervention: the aim is to stop people from turning into violent criminals in the first place.

This is a sensible strategy. But there is a need for action now. First, there needs to be more use of the Section 60 power which allows the police to stop anyone in a given area. Theresa May, who has been so critical—and perhaps too critical—of how the police have used stop and search in the past, should publicly emphasise that she backs the police using these powers when necessary.