100 people a week receive death threat involving a knife 

Over 100 people a week received a death threat involving a knife last year, shocking new figures show.

The number of such threats has soared nearly fourfold in just over a decade.

In 2010 there were 1,424 death threats with a blade compared to 5,459 last year, according to Labour Party analysis.

It comes amid outrage over the Nottingham killings of Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both aged 19, and 65-year-old Ian Coates to death in a rampage last summer.

Knifeman Valdo Calocane has been locked up in Ashworth high-security hospital after pleading guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility. He could be freed from prison in three years.

Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The brutal killings of Grace O’Malley Kumar, barnaby Webber and Ian Coates have shocked the country and left the city of Nottingham reeling.

“Knife crime has become an epidemic with a deeply disturbing increase in death threats involving knives.

“We need urgent action to tackle it before more lives are lost and more families are devastated but the Conservative Government being far too slow to act, with too many dangerous weapons still easily and legally available online.

“Labour has made it a mission to halve knife crime over the next decade and we will work tirelessly to clamp down on this awful crime.”

A Home Office spokesperson pointed to improvements in the police recording of violent crime.

They added: “Since 2010 our communities are safer, with neighbourhood crimes including burglary, robbery and theft down 48 per cent and overall violent crime down 51 per cent.

“This week we announced the ban on zombie-style machetes and we are increasing the maximum sentence for selling knives to under 18s. We will continue to invest in youth services that have prevented thousands of violent injuries.”