Jail those who carry knives, urges Cameron

Tory leader David Cameron said today that anyone convicted of knife crime should expect a jail sentence.

He was speaking at the launch of his party's campaign in the Glasgow East contest, which he described as "the broken society by-election".

Mr Cameron's speech spelled out a hard line on knife crime.

"We are proposing that anyone convicted of knife crime should expect to go to jail," said the Tory leader.

"I don't believe that the Government's 'presumption to prosecute' is enough. It doesn't send a strong enough signal. We need a 'presumption to prison'."

Mr Cameron also set out to claim the moral high ground in politics, claiming that society had become "far too sensitive" to say what was right and what was wrong.

He argued that, both in that contest and in elections to come, Tories would make it their "mission" to repair the broken society - "to heal the wounds of poverty, crime, social disorder and deprivation that are steadily making this country a grim and joyless place to live for far too many people".

Mr Cameron set out his party's position in a church in Barlanark in the east end of Glasgow.

The church is dedicated to St Jude, patron saint of lost causes, but Mr Cameron, whose party came fourth in Glasgow East in the 2007 election, denied this made it an appropriate venue.