Rishi Sunak announces ban on ‘zombie-style’ knives and says there is no reason for them to be on streets – as it happened

Prime minister says he will give police more powers to confiscate knives and will make it illegal to possess certain weapons. This live blog is closed

Rishi Sunak has said a crackdown on zombie-style knives, with new powers for police, would make a big difference" for officers.

The government has announced more zombie-style" knives and machetes with no practical use are to be banned and police will be given more powers to seize and destroy them.

Knife crime is appalling, it disproportionately affects young people and we should be doing everything we can to stamp it out. I spent time with officers here and the Met commissioner talking about what they're dealing with on the streets. What we're doing today will make their jobs easier.

We're giving the police more powers to confiscate knives when they come across them, when they're going about their day-to-day policing business. We are banning particular types of knives. Having just seen them myself there's no reason these knives should be on the streets.

There's no sensible reason anyone should own them or possess them. So, we're going to ban them and make it illegal to possess them. Lastly, we're toughening up the sentencing for people who are caught with these weapons.

Taken together, it's a strong set of powers that, having spoken to the police, they know will make a big difference to their ability to cut knife crime down. I'm pleased that knife crime is down since the pre-pandemic levels but we've got to keep going to root out this awful crime. Today's powers will make a big difference.