Tag: Downing Street

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 10 September 2024.

Pooja’s son Ronan was fatally stabbed in 2022. On Monday 9 September, Pooja attended the first annual Knife Crime Summit at Downing Street.

Within seconds, my whole life was shattered.

I miss talking to him. I miss hugging him, hearing his giggles, his laugh, his loud noise, his cheeky look in his eyes.

It’s horrifying to know that a beautiful child of yours – a good person, a good human being – has been taken by something so cruel and for no reason. Because they mistook him for somebody else.

On the evening of 29th June 2022, Ronan went to play snooker with his friend. It was the first time he’d gone out after finishing his GCSEs. It was a treat.

I was out of the house at a meditation class. My neighbour, who was at the class with me, got a call. I got up, hearing the commotion.

“What’s happened?” I asked.

“There’s been a stabbing on our street, we need to get home,” she replied.

I didn’t know then that it was my own child. You don’t think it can happen to you.

I remember ringing Ronan, but he wasn’t picking up the phone. That’s not like Ronan – Ronan knows, he knows me, he knows to answer. But he didn’t.

My husband was at home, so I rang him and asked him to go outside to find out what was happening. He told me that Ronan had popped out for five minutes to go to his friend’s house. We both agreed to phone Ronan to tell him to get home as soon as possible.

My husband rang back crying.

“It’s Ronan, Pooja. They’re saying it’s an Asian-Indian boy.”

The perpetrators had stabbed him in his abdomen, 20 centimetres deep with a 20 inch Ninja sword. When he turned around, they stabbed him again with a Ninja sword that went through his heart. The blood was pouring out of his body.

He tried running home, but he collapsed two doors away from his house.

On my way from class, I remember asking my friend to drive me quicker and I jumped out of the moving car. Running towards the police taped area and begging the police officers to let me through, to let me hold my child.

Even though the paramedics tried to operate to save him, my Ronan died on the very street he grew up. He didn’t stand a chance.

An innocent child walking home. Murdered, just like that.

In the court case, we found out how the online sale of these threatening bladed articles played a massive role in my son’s murder. Since then, we have been and will continue fighting for a ban on machetes, zombie knives, Ninja swords and other bladed weapons. There is no need for these deadly knives to be in our society. In the wrong hands they are lethal weapons.

For each murder that happens, there have been clear failures in our system. Ronan’s murder happened because a Ninja sword was bought using a parent’s credit card with no ID checks. We also hear about the failures within the education system, within the policing system, within online sales and more. Now all these failures are being addressed so we can start correcting them.

We’re going down the right path.

If it takes a bit of time, so be it. But we need to understand that this needs to be dealt with from now on.

I would like to thank Sir Keir Starmer, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Idris Elba and my MP Pat McFadden. These are the people who are passionate about this issue and do want to make a difference. So, thank you to them.

I feel very grateful to be here, so I can share my child’s story and can fight for him. I feel like there are other people who don’t get heard.

What happened to Ronan should never have happened. My Ronan was a good, funny, humble, charismatic, intelligent and kind boy. He was every mother’s dream son.

From his school, a mother approached me to tell me how Ronan stopped their child getting bullied – now that child remembers my child and was heartbroken to learn what had happened.

He was a beautiful person and he was too good for this world. I apologise to him every morning for bringing him into this cruel world and not being able to protect him. So, this is my way of doing something for him.

Ronan’s Law will be a strong move and bring, I hope, much-needed change. Banning these weapons should be the basic start to combatting knife crime.

In my son’s memory, I have a tattoo on my arm of his heartbeat – the words underneath say: ‘Mom is proud of you, Ronan’ and his name is in his own writing. His mantra was to make me proud.

I’d give my life today for Ronan, if I could. I wish I gave my heart to him to save him. Every child deserves to grow up safely and I wish my son had this opportunity. I am the proud mother of Ronan Kanda.

I’m just a mother fighting for what’s right.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 9 September 2024.

Yemi’s son Andre was fatally stabbed in 2016. Today she attended the first annual Knife Crime Summit at Downing Street.

When your child falls down and grazes their knee, and they’re crying for you, you pick them up. You wash it off, you bandage it, and you kiss it better for them.

But when Andre was stabbed, it was the first time that I couldn’t do anything.

They wouldn’t let me near him, or see him, but everyone told me that he was calling for his mum.

It was 2016 when I got a phone call from one of Andre’s friend’s mums, telling me someone had been stabbed. I had only just dropped him off at their house, but I could tell straight away that something was wrong by the tone of her voice. I kept asking her who it was as I got my shoes on.

“They don’t know, but they’re saying it’s Andre.”

I begged her to go and look. She didn’t want to, but I needed to know. Then she let out a scream that I’ll never forget. It went right through my body.

I didn’t say anymore, I jumped in the car and drove to the house. It was a hot summer’s day and there were people everywhere, sitting on the grass. I saw the air ambulance and the cordoned off roads and ran down the length of the street to see the paramedics and police gathered. I didn’t know what to do, so we just waited.

He didn’t die there, he died at the hospital.

We’d been waiting so long for news when staff finally came and asked us what injuries he’d sustained that evening. All I could say was: “Is he dead? Is he gone?”

When they said yes, the bottom dropped off my entire world.

I knew I couldn’t crumble; I had to stay strong because I had to support my family – my mum and other children, but it was a real battle every day to hold everything together and keep going.

Before his death, I didn’t fully realise the impact Andre had on his community. I always knew he was a protector – he loved his friends and family. But there was an outpouring of grief from those around him; people saying he stood up for them at school or protected them from being bullied. That was his nature.

Andre was funny. Everybody loved him; he was the first boy in a family of girls, and he stole my mum’s heart. He didn’t take things too seriously. He was academic and learned quickly. He loved sport, music, and football. I feel very proud of him.

I think that when you lose a child, everybody contacts you. There’s this period where everyone wants to know what’s going on, and particularly because Andre’s trial was very publicised, lots of people wanted to talk to me.

I fell into various projects, including planning a nationwide march against youth violence with a friend of mine, who had also lost a loved one. That was how I got started. I began going to different meetings and working with the police, but it got to a stage where it started to take over my life.

I had lost Andre, and it was like I had no life anymore, because I used to feel guilty. I felt guilty for smiling, for going out, for enjoying something – just living. I decided to write a book. I’m not much of a writer; it was just an outpouring of a mother’s grief.

It helped me jump from the place I was into the next place and think: do you know what? Andre would want me to start living again. He would want me to focus on his brothers and carry on doing the work I was doing, but in my way.

I’m a secondary school teacher, so after I wrote my book, I left mainstream school to work in a Pupil Referral Unit. I wanted to support those children who were at risk of exclusion; the ones who need that help to have that second chance. So even though I’m no longer out campaigning and banging on doors, I am doing the work on the ground trying to make a difference everyday.

When I heard about Idris Elba’s ‘Don’t Stop Your Future’ campaign, I had made a point of passing on the baton and not doing it anymore, but I thought: This is Idris Elba – he has a huge profile, which will keep everybody focused – young people are my passion, I’ll do one more.

I think it’s good to talk, and I believe that we need to take some of the individual things raised in today’s round table and consider how they might look, especially from an educational perspective.

We need to focus on what previsions we are putting in place for youths and have a joined-up approach, to make sure we’re intervening early on. We need to make sure we’re not  criminalising, but having clear guidelines for first offenders.

I read serious case reviews every time I see that a young person has lost their life to knife crime and it’s the same story repeatedly, so we know what the issues are.

I think it’s good for the people who are living through this, day in and day out, to come together and give their ideas and their thoughts; because it cannot be led by one person. We need the strength of the Government, but without the voice of the people, we can’t expect them to get this right.

We need the voices of those who have experienced this, those who have been involved as victims or perpetrators, and come out the other side, to tell the stories of what has gone wrong for them, so we can work out how to make this better.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 7 September 2024.

The Prime Minister met Taoiseach Simon Harris at Farmleigh House in Dublin this afternoon.

The Prime Minister thanked the Taoiseach for his invitation, noting that this was the first visit of a UK Prime Minister to Ireland in five years.

Both leaders shared their personal commitment to an ambitious reset of the UK and Ireland’s relationship. They noted the existing ties between our two countries, but agreed they wanted to go even further – in particular on trade and investment to help boost growth and deliver on behalf of the British and Irish people.

In that vein, they agreed to host the first UK-Ireland summit in March next year, which will take forward co-operation in key areas of mutual interest such as security, climate, trade and culture.

They both strongly condemned recent scenes of violent disorder in England and Ireland and agreed to deepen their collaboration on how we tackle the spread of the online misinformation which fuelled the thuggery.

They looked forward to watching the Republic of Ireland vs England Nations’ League football match this evening.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 7 September 2024.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will travel to Dublin today [7 September 2024] to meet the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, in his first official visit to Ireland.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will travel to Dublin today to meet the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, in his first official visit to Ireland.

Continuing his drive to reset the UK’s relationships with its key international partners and deliver for hard-working British people, he will welcome a new era in the British-Irish relationship and highlight the opportunity it presents to drive forward economic growth.

Ireland is one of the UK’s top trading partners and the trading relationship is worth 100 billion euros a year – supporting thousands of jobs for British and Irish people.

Boosting growth is the Prime Minister’s key mission of government, and the visit is another example of his personal commitment to drive up the UK’s standing in the world in order to attract investment to the UK and create more jobs for British people.

The Prime Minister and the Taoiseach will also meet Irish business leaders from companies including Accenture, Keelings and Primark today, to encourage enhanced bilateral trade and investment in pursuit of growth.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

The UK and Ireland share the strongest of ties – through our close geography, shared culture and the friendships of our people.

Our relationship has never reached its full potential, but I want to change that. We have a clear opportunity to go further and faster to make sure our partnership is fully delivering on behalf of the British and Irish people – driving growth and prosperity in both our countries.

The Taoiseach and I are in lockstep about our future, and we look forward to deepening our collaboration further.

The Taoiseach was the first international leader hosted by the Prime Minister in the UK following the July election – demonstrating the Prime Minister’s personal commitment to a strong UK-Ireland relationship.

Today’s visit comes after the Prime Minister’s visit to Berlin and Paris last week to continue the UK’s reset with its key European partners.

The leaders will attend the Republic of Ireland vs England Nations’ League football match on Saturday evening.

Hilary O’Meara, Country Managing Director of Accenture in Ireland said:

Accenture is delighted to be invited, alongside other business leaders in Ireland, to join UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Taoiseach, Simon Harris to discuss mutual business opportunity across our two countries.

It is encouraging to see the Prime Minister travel to Ireland so early in his premiership to join us for what promises to a great sporting occasion.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 3 September 2024.

The Prime Minister spoke to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed al-Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates yesterday afternoon.

The Prime Minister said he was pleased to have the opportunity to speak again so soon, following their first call shortly after the election in July.

The leaders agreed that our countries share a strong and important bond and reiterated their commitment to deepening the relationship going forwards.

They agreed to find a time to meet in person at the earliest opportunity.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 31 August 2024.

Here are some of the things we are doing to fix the foundations of this country.

We want to create wealth everywhere, but first we must fix the foundations of our country.

In the first few weeks of this Government, an audit found a £22 billion black hole in the public finances. It means we’ve had to take tough decisions, like means-testing the Winter Fuel Payment. Our Budget in October will be difficult.

But we have already taken action to improve the lives of working people in every corner of the country, from unlocking planning decisions to help build 1.5 million new homes to setting up Great British Energy, to create good jobs and provide clean energy to cut people’s bills in the long term.

Here are some of the things we are doing to fix the foundations of this country.

Setting up a new National Wealth Fund

Growth is the number one priority of this government. That’s why we set up the National Wealth Fund.

It is a publicly owned investment fund that will help attract investment into our country, stabilise our economy and create wealth for future generations.

It will help unlock private investment into the UK by directly investing in new and growing industries, and help create thousands of jobs in clean energy industries.

Accelerating housing planning

We’re overhauling our housing system to meet the needs of working people and put communities first.

Our plan will include introducing mandatory planning targets to aim to deliver on our ambition to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.

The new targets will boost housebuilding in areas most in need, to help more people buy their own homes, and help drive growth – making everyone in the country better off.

Putting passengers first  We’ll put our rail system back on track with new laws to deliver for passengers.

They will improve the railways by reforming rail franchising, establishing Great British Railways and bringing train operators into public ownership.

Protecting taxpayer money

We’ll introduce legislation that makes sure nobody can play fast and loose with public finances.

A new Bill will strengthen the role of the Office of Budget Responsibility, meaning significant fiscal announcements must be properly scrutinised and that taxpayers’ money is respected.

Protecting workers’ rights

We’ll improve workers’ rights with new legislation – a significant step towards delivering this Government’s plan to make work pay.

We will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, end fire and rehire, and introduce basic employment rights from day one.

And we’re changing the way the Minimum Wage is set so it keeps in line with the cost of living, in a move to put more money in working people’s pockets.

Launching GB Energy

Producing clean energy and creating good jobs will be our focus for the rest of the year. Great British Energy, a publicly owned, clean-energy company, will own, manage and operate clean power projects, such as wind farms, across the country.

Great British Energy will be headquartered in Scotland and paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants. It will invest clean power projects across the United Kingdom, such as wind farms, which are the cheapest forms of electricity generation to build and operate.

This will help make our country energy independent, tackle climate change and save families money. And investing in clean domestic power will create jobs and build supply chains in every corner of the UK.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 29 August 2024.

The Prime Minister met President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace this morning.

The Prime Minister congratulated President Macron on hosting such a successful Olympic Games and said he was looking forward to watching the Paralympics in the coming weeks.

The leaders reflected on the success of the European Political Community meeting, held at Blenheim Palace last month, and agreed on the importance of further strengthening and broadening the close relationship between the UK and France in the coming months.

Turning to the fragile situation in the Middle East, the Prime Minister said he was very concerned about the escalation in the West Bank in recent days.

The leaders agreed on the urgency of concluding the ceasefire negotiations, and the importance of pursing a political solution that creates an irreversible pathway to a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, which can provide lasting security for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Moving to the shared challenge of small boat crossings, the Prime Minister welcomed the joint action between the UK and France and the leaders agreed to do more together to dismantle smuggling routes further upstream and increase intelligence sharing.

The leaders looked forward to speaking again soon.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 29 August 2024.

The King has been pleased to approve the appointment of Catherine Smith KC as Advocate General for Scotland.

His Majesty has also been pleased to signify His intention of conferring a peerage of the United Kingdom for Life on Catherine Smith KC.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 28 August 2024.

The King has been pleased to appoint Ms Catherine Maxwell Stuart DL as His Lord-Lieutenant for Tweeddale, to succeed Professor Sir Hew Strachan CVO FBA FRSE following his retirement on 1st September 2024.

Background

Catherine Maxwell Stuart, 21st Lady of Traquair, was born in Edinburgh and educated at the London School of Economics and Edinburgh University. In 1999 she took over management of the Traquair Estate and has made a great success of running the House not just as a public attraction but as a venue for international cultural exchange and conflict resolution in partnership with her husband, Mark Muller Stuart KC, the Founder of Beyond Borders Scotland. She is highly regarded within the area and involved in a number of business and charitable organisations ranging from tourism to furniture re-use and youth work. She was made an Honorary Fellow of the Scottish Borders College in 2014.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 28 August 2024.

The King has approved the following new appointments to His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council:

• Baroness Eluned Morgan MS – First Minister of Wales
• Dame Janice Pereira DBE – Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court
• John Swinney MSP – First Minister of Scotland