Doreen Lawrence, the Labour peer whose son Stephen Lawrence was murdered in 1993, has said the recent surge in knife crime in London would be taken more seriously if the victims were white, and told the government to “get a grip”. Speaking nearly 25 years after her son was stabbed to death in a racist attack by a gang in Eltham, south-east London, Lady Lawrence said she was tired of reading about stabbings in newspapers.

On Thursday, police figures revealed a 21% increase in knife violence in the last 12 months in England and Wales. An investigation by the Guardian last year revealed that victims of knife crime in the capital were disproportionately black. In other parts of the country, they were mainly white.

“I’m tired of reading about it in the paper. I’m tired of seeing families talking about their sons. I’m really, really tired of it,” Lawrence told the Press Association. “I think the government needs to get a grip. It comes under the race issue again – look who’s dying. If that was the amount of kids who were in the white community that were dying, do you think that something would have been done?” she said.

When asked about the spate of stabbings that occurred in London on New Year’s Eve while police resources were focused on counter-terrorism, she said: “I wouldn’t take anything away from the energies they are putting into protecting people from terrorism. That is important and we need to do that. But we need to give as much to our young black kids who are dying.”



Gary Dobson and David Norris were found guilty of murdering Stephen Lawrence in January 2012, 18 years after the death of the black teenager.

In response to her comments, a Home Office spokesman said: “Every single death from knife crime is a tragedy and this government is determined to do everything it can to break the deadly cycle and protect our children, families and communities.

“The government’s new serious violence strategy, due to be published in spring, will put a greater focus on steering young people away from a life of crime, while continuing to ensure the strongest possible law enforcement response.

“It will have prevention and early intervention measures at its heart and look to shift attitudes and challenge behaviour among those young people who view knife possession as normal and necessary.”



Lawrence drew parallels between her fight for justice and the plight of Grenfell Tower survivors. “I remember when I first saw the fire and I saw the community that was in the building – initially it was shock, and then it’s a bit like Stephen’s case. They seem to have just moved on and those people are still there,” she said.



“You need to stick to it. Those lives mattered. And that’s what I’ve been struggling with for so many years. Stephen’s life mattered. It mattered to me. It mattered to his family, and you can’t just move on from that.”