The King calls for urgent action with major update on social media.
The monarch urged the government to help tackle youth violence and knife crime today as he met actor Idris Elba, the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and young people to discuss tackling violence and knife crime in the UK.
Charles, 75, whose King’s Trust has been working with Elba’s own foundation to support young people, told the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, that he would be “watching and hoping for progress” on the issue at a special roundtable discussion at St James’s Palace.
The King welcomed the star of Luther and The Wire to Clarence House for an audience in the Morning Room. Elba is a former alumnus and now ambassador of the King’s Trust, formerly known as the Prince’s Trust, who, as a teenager, was given a £1,500 grant by Trust to go to the National Youth Music Theatre.
Through his Elba Hope Foundation, he has been working with Charles’s charity in its work supporting young people and developing opportunities and initiatives which might help address youth violence.
Seated in the Morning Room, Charles told Elba: “You’re endlessly active with your wonderful foundation and your efforts in Africa, which I’m longing to hear all about.”
Elba replied: “I can’t wait to tell you, we’ve been focused on the knife crime crisis here and it’s been really good to see the whole country come round and the new Prime Minister, before he was prime minister, was keen to help me bolster the message so it’s been good. Under the former government, we did also manage to get the zombie knife banned, so the campaigning continues and I’m so grateful to have your ear.”
During their meeting, the pair also discussed the collaboration in Sierra Leone between the King’s Trust International, founded in 2015 to tackle youth unemployment globally, and the Elba Hope Foundation.
An international charity founded by Elba and his wife, Sabrina, it focuses on community empowerment, education, and sustainable development in a bid to improve the lives of young people in marginalised communities across the UK, US and Africa. The Trust and the Foundation have committed to collaborate on a new ‘Creative Futures’ initiative, to inspire young people through the arts and support them into jobs in the creative industries.