by Alex Wellman An MP who lives close to where a father was stabbed to death in front of his six month old baby snubbed a Parliament meeting on knife crime. Sarah Teather, MP for Brent East, lives minutes away from where Michael Mann who

by Alex Wellman

An MP who lives close to where a father was stabbed to death in front of his six month old baby snubbed a Parliament meeting on knife crime.

Sarah Teather, MP for Brent East, lives minutes away from where Michael Mann who was stabbed to death in Willesden High Road, on May 2.

But instead of attending last Thursday's debate, Ms Teather instead chose to meet the Governor General of Jamaica, who was visiting Learie Constantine Centre in Dudden Hill.

Anti-violent crime campaigner Patsy Hopwood-Clarke, whose son Kavian would have turned 27 on June 5, but was murdered in April 2003, questioned politicians' commitment to stamping out gun and knife crime.

Mrs Hopwood-Clarke said: "It is just awful. It is our young children that are dying. I think an effort should be made to help them instead of ignoring them.

"They are not taking the matter seriously and when a crime does happen they just jump on a bandwagon.

"We as adults need to take a stand and show the youth that they do matter to us but when a meeting is arranged, the people who make the laws in this land cannot be bothered to turn up."

Dawn Butler, MP for Brent South, was one of only 16 to attend the meeting despite having been invited to meet with the Governor General.

Ms Butler said: "With the fear of crime, and violent crime, in particular, so high it is crazy that some MPs weren't there. This is what we are elected to do and I just thought it was my duty to come along."

Ms Teather blamed her non-attendance on the Government's late announcement of the debate.

The meeting clashed with a long-standing engagement the MP arranged to welcome both the Governor General and High Commissioner of Jamaica.

She said: "Frankly, I think people would like their MPs to talk less and do more.

"I cannot be in two places at once. I would like to have gone but I felt it better to be in the constituency meeting people.

"Knife crime is an extremely important issue in Brent, but most people accept that MPs won't solve the problem by talking among themselves."

Ms Teather said the debate was never going to solve knife crime because it presented no motions for new legislation nor any fresh proposals to tackle the problem.

MPs who attended the debate

Dawn Butler - Brent South

Karen Buck - Regent's Park and Kensington North

MPs who didn't attend

Sarah Teather - Brent East

She said: "There are hundreds of important debates in the House of Commons every week, and it is physically impossible for every MP to attend every single one. This debate was never going to solve the very important issue of knife crime. There were no motions, there was no new legislation, and there were no new proposals.

Andy Slaughter - Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush

He said: "There was no whipped business in the Commons last Thursday and therefore I had a full constituency diary, which I would have had to cancel at short notice.

"I entirely agree with you that this is a serious matter, but I do not see how sitting mute in the House of Commons for an hour and a half would help address it."

Sir Malcolm Rifkind - Kensington and Chelsea

He said: "I was sorry not to be at the debate. That morning I was with the Chelsea Pensioners at the Royal Hospital."

Greg Hands MP - Hammersmith and Fulham

He said: "I was in the Finance Bill Committee meeting when the debate took place.

"I'm one of the 24 MPs who sit on the committee which is meeting for about 11 hours a week and one of the meetings directly conflicted with the debate.

"It is compulsory to attend the committee there are votes going on and very important decisions being made."

Barry Gardiner - Brent North

His office failed to comment on his absence.

Glenda Jackson - Hampstead and Highgate

She said: "I think I was in a meeting at the time. It was not a debate in Government time. We only know what it is the day before so I had not put my name down."

Mark Field - Cities of London and Westminster

His office told the Times he had also attended the Finance Bill Committee meeting but was unavailable for comment.

alex.wellman@archant.co.uk