MERSEYSIDE police and crime commissioner candidate Olly Martins is calling on the region to declare a 'knife-crime emergency' to tackle the rise of offences.

The Labour campaigner, who was police and crime commissioner for Bedfordshire from 2012 to 2016, says that a fresh leadership is needed to address the 93% rise in knife offences over the last five years.

Mr Martins told the Globe: "We have a knife crime emergency and need to mobilise all the resources of the public sector and wider civil society to meet this crisis.

"That’s why, if I’m elected as PCC, I’ll declare a knife crime emergency.

“We can’t absolve the Tories and Liberal Democrats of their responsibility for almost 10 years of austerity that has hollowed out public sector services like Surestart centres, children’s mental health, youth centres and of course 1,000 fewer police officers in Merseyside.

"But nor should we just wring our hands.

"We also know that serious youth violence is rife in areas of deprivation, which is why I'm saying crime and social justice are intrinsically linked.

“It is not enough to establish partnerships and units with time-limited government funding that when the Home Office need to launch another eye-catching initiative.

"We need a radically different approach to multi-agency working and we should be using devolution and the creation of the Combined Authority to make this happen, as we see in Greater Manchester.

“It is as though the PCC has been asleep at the wheel as this crisis has reared up. I won’t be absent, in fact I want the PCC to be based in the same building as the Metro Mayor."

However Merseyside’s police commissioner Jane Kennedy said that she will continue to work "extremely hard" to tackle "all causes of violent crime."

Ms Kennedy said: “The increase in knife crime and other violence has a number of complex causes and is being experienced by communities and police forces across the United Kingdom.

"I will continue to work extremely hard, with Merseyside Police and our critically important partners, to tackle all of the causes of violent crime.

“I will continue to lobby government Ministers for a fairer settlement of the budget for the police and to ensure that, alongside our partners, we maintain the effectiveness of that work on a daily basis.”

Mr Martins continued to say that crime is an issue of "social justice" after a report was published last week into youth violence in London.

He continued: “Last week figures were published showing the link between deprivation and serious youth violence in London.

"The crime data for these two communities, separated by one letter and only a few miles but at opposite extremes in terms of residents’ life chances, shows that is a reality in Merseyside too.

"Crime really is an issue of Social Justice.

"Voters in Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral deserve more than a ‘business as usual’ approach to the pressing issue of knife crime.

"If elected I will be a PCC with a sense of urgency and energy about tackling this crisis, taking a lead in the communities most impacted by knife crime and working with organisations like #RealMenDontCarryKnives."