Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's U-turn on knife crime plan

The Government’s strategy on knife crime was in disarray last night as the Home Secretary was accused of a U-turn over plans, briefed at the weekend, to confront offenders with stabbing victims in hospital.

Jacqui Smith insisted to the Commons that, despite widespread reports, she had never said that the Government was proposing to take young people into wards to see patients.

Her words were apparently contradicted by an interview that she had given to Sky News on Sunday. She was asked: “One of those proposals is that people caught carrying knives should be taken to see people in hospital who have been stabbed, or to meet the families of victims, is that correct?”

“It is,” Ms Smith replied.

The Government appears to have done an about-turn on its new knife crime policy.

In an interview with Sky's Adam Boulton on Sunday Live, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said youngsters caught with knives would be forced to confront the possible consequences by bringing them face-to-face with blade victims in hospitals.

But now, the Home Office said they would instead only be expected to meet doctors to be educated about the injuries caused by knives.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government fended off accusations on Monday of a U-turn over a headline-grabbing anti-crime measure, denying it had proposed taking criminals to meet victims in hospital.

The government said the policy, which had led to front page headlines in newspapers throughout the country, had been misunderstood.

But accusations his cabinet botched a policy roll-out adds to the political misery of Brown, whose poll ratings have collapsed since he took over from Tony Blair a year ago.