A campaigner has labelled knife crime in Britain a "national emergency" after eight people were arrested due to a machete fight that took place in Southend-on-Sea last night.
It came shortly after three young girls died in the Southport stabbings earlier this week.
Director of the Law and Order Foundation, Norman Brennan has urged the government to implement an instant jail sentence for anybody carrying a knife.
Speaking to GB News he said: "Knife crime in Britain is a cancer.
"I warned Tony Blair that unless his government and that was Labour at the time, acted, not just listened, there would be an epidemic coming.
"We're talking about an epidemic. It's a cancer, it's an epidemic and you rightly highlight it's a national emergency.
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A machete fight on the seafront yesterday
X"If I was describing it in medical terms, we're on life support. In the past decade, knife crime in Britain has gone up by over 80 per cent.
He added: "At what figure do we have to reach where three years ago in London, for example, we had the highest child homicide rate on record, 27?
"That means that over the past decade, two or three hundred parents have been planning funerals instead of bright futures. We need a major consensus.
"The government, the criminal justice system, the police, the public and the communities. Nobody ever seems to get together.
Norman Brennan said that it is a "national emergency"
GB News
"Everybody blames each other and what we do, and it's far past time and this government is not looking at it.
"We need a mandatory prison sentence of five years for anyone carrying a knife on the streets without lawful authority or reasonable excuse.
"Maybe if you're a juvenile, three years, you're three times more likely to be stabbed to death than if you were shot to death.
"Yet if you carry a firearm, you get a minimum of five years imprisonment. Even today, if you carry a knife, which is as lethal as a firearm, it may be as low as a parking fine or a conditional discharge."
Tributes and candles to the victims of the Southport knife attack
GettyMerseyside Police confirmed earlier this week that a 17-year-old boy, from Cardiff, has been arrested in connection to the stabbing of 11 people.
Three children have died and were named by the police as six-year-old Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar.
Eight other children suffered stab wounds and five are in a critical condition, alongside two adults who were critically injured.