A YOUTH worker has launched her own anti-knife campaign amid calls for the late Bradley Gledhill to not become ‘another statistic’ and prevent gang crime.

Tanisha Bramwell, who is a community charity worker in Kirklees and running as an independent candidate for Dewsbury West, hopes to stamp out knife crime and gang related activity locally; starting off with Batley and Dewsbury as a matter of urgency.

20-year-old Bradley Gledhill was stabbed to death during a street fight on the evening of Sunday, June 21. Eight arrests have since been made in connection with the case.

Ms Bramwell now hopes to get #KOKnifeCrime and #PreventGangCulture trending online, having won the support of public figures, residents, West Yorkshire Police and Mr Gledhill’s sister and cousin.

It follows after Ms Bramwell held a telephone call with Tracy Brabin, the MP for Batley & Spen, after writing an open letter describing the current approach to knife crime as “not good enough”.

During a Parliamentary session, the MP called on the house for a debate on the subject of knife crime on the grounds there had not been one for “over a year”.

In response to her call, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the House of Commons, agreed, describing knife crime as a “terrible evil which members on both sides of the house are committed to eradicating”.

Speaking on the new powers, Mr Rees-Mogg said: "This will increase the likelihood of these offenders being stopped and send a strong message that if they insist on carrying a knife they will be punished and will face a custodial sentence.

“Though I do fear that what we say about what we will do in the future is remarkably little comfort to the families who are bereaved, but that perhaps some comfort will be how seriously the issue is taken and that what they have gone through will be the spur for action, not just from the Government but from the opposition and from all across this house to try and tackle this terrible scourge.”

Ms Bramwell told the Telegraph & Argus: “Thank you Tracy for your phone call days ago it was really nice to speak with you. Second, thank you for using Brad’s name and publicly giving condolences to his family. Thank you for accepting the fact that this need has to be prioritised.

Furthermore, it is ok to identify a need, and speak about this, but it’s the actions that take place that will prevent more knife attacks. Identifying a need is not good enough this is step one. As I said when we spoke, you are welcome to be apart of this movement and will be invited to the meeting in 2 weeks. We have a long way to go, this can’t be talked about right now and forgotten later, our young people and communities deserve more. I want to say thank you Tracy Brabin for doing this. But the response wasn’t good enough and people need to see their MP’s challenging responses like that.”

Speaking after the incident, Detective Superintendent Jim Griffiths of Kirklees Police, said: “We fully realise the concern this incident will cause in communities in Batley and officers from Kirklees District are working today to support HMET colleagues in investigating what took place and also speak with local residents.

“Our local neighbourhood policing teams, in conjunction with our partner agencies, are working closely with our communities to understand problems and identify areas where greater support is needed.

“This incident has taken place against a backdrop of big falls in knife crime in Kirklees over the past 12 months following multiple police operations and continued proactive patrolling by colleagues from the force’s Operation Jemlock team.

"These sort of offences are treated exceptionally seriously by Kirklees Police and we continue to deploy significant resources into combatting offending of this kind.

“Enhanced patrols will be continuing over the next few days and officers will be available within the area for local residents to liaise with directly."