Offenders caught with knife a second time could face six months in jail

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/jun/12/knife-offenders-second-time-jail

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A plan to jail any offender caught in possession of a knife for a second time is likely to pass into law next week after the Conservatives announced they are to defy the Liberal Democrats to support the measure.

In a sign of how the coalition partners are moving apart in the runup to the next election, David Cameron is to instruct his backbenchers and ministerial aides to vote in favour of the proposal described by Nick Clegg last month as part of "headline-grabbing solutions".

All Tory MPs, excluding ministers, will be told to vote in favour of a backbench amendment to the criminal justice and courts bill next Tuesday that would impose automatic six-month jail sentences for any offender caught in possession of a knife twice.

The proposal, drawn up by the justice secretary Chris Grayling, is being tabled as an amendment to the bill by the backbench Tory MP Nick de Bois.

The technical rules of the coalition will be observed when all Tory ministers will abstain on the grounds there is no agreed government position. The Lib Dems will vote against the amendment, as they are entitled to under the rules of the coalition because the proposal is not government policy. The de Bois amendment is likely to reach the statute book because Labour has said it will support the proposal.

A Tory government source said: "The Conservatives have always made clear we want to do more to tackle knife crime. The Commons will vote next week on an amendment to jail people caught carrying a knife on more than one occasion.

"Conservative ministers support these plans in principle. But because this is not an agreed coalition policy, they will abstain in Tuesday's vote. However, other Conservative MPs will be free to vote as they wish and these new powers stand a good chance of becoming law."

The Tory tactics will irritate, but not surprise, Clegg who warned in a Guardian article that the proposal risked turning today's young offenders "into the hardened criminals of tomorrow".

The Lib Dems blamed the Tories for leaking, shortly after the knifing to death of the Leeds schoolteacher Ann Maguire, internal government discussions which showed that Clegg did not want to discuss the Grayling proposal.

Clegg wrote in his Guardian article: "In the aftermath of terrible events such as this, we have to be careful that we don't simply reach for headline-grabbing solutions which don't necessarily work in practice."

The deputy prime minister added: "This is a minimum of six months in prison for simply having a knife, potentially even a penknife, in your pocket. Not, as I've read in some press reports, for a number of offences involving a knife."

The vote next week will provide a flavour of the loveless nature of the coalition in the run up to the election. Basic government business will continue but on more contentious areas the two parties are drifting apart.