Tory MP says every knife sold in UK should have GPS tracker 'fitted in the handle'

‘If you’re carrying it around you had better have a bloody good explanation, obvious exemptions for fishing etc,’ says Scott Mann, prompting widespread derision

Every knife sold in the UK should have a GPS tracking device fitted in its handle, according to a Conservative MP.

The proposal was suggested as a potential means of dealing with increasing levels of knife crime in the UK.

Scott Mann, MP for North Cornwall, said: “Every knife sold in the UK should have a GPS tracker fitted in the handle.”

“It’s time we had a national database like we do with guns. If you’re carrying it around you had better have a bloody good explanation, obvious exemptions for fishing etc.”

Mr Mann’s suggestion was immediately met with derision after it was posted on Twitter, with dozens of users rushing to point out that the measure would both be vastly expensive and ineffective.

“Good God,” wrote one. “Just when you think our elected officials can’t possibly be any dimmer...”

Mr Mann’s tweet came after the Ministry of Justice announced that knife and weapon offences were at a nine-year high. Some 21,484 crimes were dealt with in England and Wales last year – making it the highest number since 2009.

He appeared to suggest that putting all knives into a national database and fitting them with tracking devices would help bring down those numbers.

Any such GPS tracking system would inevitably come at a considerable cost.

Knives would not only need the technology required to connect with GPS satellites, they would also need a data connection so that they could be tracked down by police.

Scott Mann became an MP in 2015. In 2016, he revealed that during a boating trip he had to be saved from drowning by fellow Tory MP Johnny Mercer, because he was “ashamed to admit” that he could not swim.