A Labour MP has detailed the “painful” moment she stepped in to help the victim of a stabbing, as she called on the Government to distribute more stab kits.
Florence Eshalomi told MPs how she saw a young boy slumped over on the street as she drove to pick up her son from nursery in 2020.
During a debate on knife crime, Ms Eshalomi said there should be more awareness on how to treat victims in the immediate aftermath of a stabbing so that lives can be saved.
The MP for Vauxhall praised youth services in her constituency and across the UK who help vulnerable young people on a “shoe-string budget” and argued these should be a statutory provision.
Speaking in the Commons, Ms Eshalomi said: “I was on my way to pick up my son from nursery, my daughter was in the car at the back, I’d picked her up from reception, and I mention this because I didn’t know what had happened but there was someone slumped on the road, and as I got closer in the car and I pulled over… it obviously transpired that he’d been stabbed.
“And what I mentioned in my maiden speech was the fact that there were people walking past us. That was really painful because I think we’re getting to a situation (where) we are allowing ourselves to become desensitised to the issue of knife crime.
“Now I’m not going to stand here and say I’m a first aid respondent or anything and I’m absolutely petrified by the sight of blood, but myself and another lady that came out from the block flats, folded up what I think was a blanket and stemmed the blood, and the long and short the ambulance came.
“My frantic call to the emergency services probably didn’t make sense because I was just screaming ‘you need to get here now’ and I know that the poor call handler who took that call was think ‘what rabble is this woman going on about’, because I was just scared, I was just thinking this boy is going to die.
“And thankfully he didn’t die, we managed to stem the blood and he was lucky and during the lockdown I received an email from his teacher and it turned out that his teacher actually lives in my constituency and he said ‘you know the young boy’s making a good recovery but thank you’.
“And I know how frightening it can be for anyone to be in front of that situation but we need to look at how we can help people in terms of having the skills and means to stem the flow of blood as quickly and effectively as possible, because every second makes such a big difference when there’s a trauma and knife crime stabbing.”
She added: “I hope that the minister will look at how we raise awareness around the stab kits and first aid response to knife crime, and how we distribute more of those stab kits alongside more shops and other areas.
“I hope that in closing, that the minister will recognise the value of a number of youth organisations not just in my constituency but right across the country, working with some of the most vulnerable young people and young adults in helping them to turn their lives around, but the reality is minister, they are working on a shoe-string budget.
“We still see a situation where youth services is not deemed as a statutory provision.”
Home Office minister Michael Tomlinson commended Ms Eshalomi and said she “spoke powerfully”.
Later in the debate, shadow security minister Dan Jarvis called for swords to be included in the ban on zombie-style knives and machetes, which the Government announced in August this year.
Mr Jarvis said: “We don’t believe that the current ban goes far enough.”
In response, Mr Tomlinson said the inclusion of swords in the ban would be kept under review.
He said: “There has been an interest in extending the ban to swords and I understand the reasoning why. However the police have told us that the greatest risk at the moment is the use of zombie-style knives and machetes, therefore at the moment that is the focus of the work. However, it will be kept under review.”