Sajid Javid, pictured with Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick, has cut £5m from a scheme to prevent knife crime

The home secretary, Sajid Javid, has secretly reduced funding for a scheme to help children escape knife crime, despite a sharp rise in the number of murders and stabbings.

In July, Javid had said that he was doubling the £11m that was allocated to the early intervention youth fund to £22m. This was part of a “public health” approach to combating knife crime and other offences.

While on a recent visit to the West Midlands, however, the policing minister Nick Hurd quietly announced that the funding had been reduced to £17m. Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow policing minister, described the move as “shameful”.

“Dozens of potentially life-saving projects will now never see the light of day. With knife crime at record levels, ministers must think again,”