While Theresa May has been mouthing platitudes and cutting support for police, one of our best-known actors has been helping a genuine initiative to cut knife crime.

Idris Elba took to the streets to support mobile project Faz Amnesty, that travels the length of the country collecting weapons.

The project offers youngsters High Street vouchers in exchange for knives. Once collected, the project hands them over to the police.

Here’s Mr Elba, explaining it:

Meanwhile, Theresa May has been trying to palm off responsibility for knife crime among young people – onto teachers.

She wants teachers to have a “public health duty” to identify warning signs that a young person could be in danger, such as worrying behaviour at school, issues at home, or “presenting at A&E with a suspicious injury”. For real?

There is an existing duty requiring teachers and police to work together to safeguard children. As a former Home Secretary, Theresa May should know that.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the teachers’ union the NASUWT, delivered the reality check to Mrs May when he said: “All professionals involved with children and young people are well aware of their responsibilities for safeguarding their health and welfare.

“Violent crime involving young people, of course, needs to be taken seriously and appropriate strategies considered. However, this is a complex issue which will not be resolved by putting additional pressures and responsibilities on teachers and head teachers or indeed others.”

Yet Mrs May is still trying to convince us that she is taking this issue seriously.

Ludicrous. As Peter Stefanovic pointed out: “This is a joke, right? Your “support for Police Officers” has consisted of cutting 21,000 of them, slashing Police budgets, stretching resources to breaking point, asking them to work harder with what they’ve got, sitting back whilst crime soars & accusing them of ‘crying wolf!'”

That’s right. Mrs May sat back, forcing Mr Elba to take up the slack.

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