The data shows the problem is not confined to London – where 53 people have been stabbed to death so far this year – but is a rising concern in most urban areas.
Last month, in the wake of yet another fatal stabbing, Ms Smith insisted: ‘Knife crime, although we are very worried about it, is not more serious than it has been previously.’
Although the Home Secretary is right in as much as the national figure has risen by a relatively modest 2.6 per cent in nine months, big falls in sparsely populated areas mask more substantial rises in most major metropolitan areas.
Official statistics due to be published next week but obtained in advance by this newspaper show that Northumbria, which includes Newcastle, has seen knife crime leap by 43 per cent in just nine months.
Merseyside recorded a 35 per cent rise over the same period, with Greater Manchester and West Midlands dealing with rises of 19 per cent. However, knife crime did fall in some regions, with Devon and Cornwall, Humberside and Derbyshire halving the number of incidents.
