LAST week I was delighted to be able to vote for a proposal that will make sure that anyone convicted of a carrying a knife for a second time faces six months in jail. This allows me to deliver on a campaign, 'Knives Cost Lives’, which I led around eight years ago alongside my constituent Lucy Davis whose brother was murdered in Reading town centre. We believed it was important that young people needed to be deterred from carrying a weapon because it will ultimately save lives and therefore end the grief suffered by so many families. My colleague Nick de Bois has fought hard for this law since he was elected in 2010 and I’m delighted that it was overwhelmingly backed by Conservative MPs.

Of course we also need better education in schools, so that young people understand that carrying a knife is never the answer but the thugs who continue to carry knives should face jail. Nearly 8,000 knife offences last year ended in fines or cautions and too many stabbing victims lost their lives. It has always seemed bizarre to me that to carry a deadly weapon often ended in such a lenient sentence. I believe that this law will send a powerful message to those who carry a knife that we are determined to be tough when it comes to keeping our streets and young people safe.

In 2009, I met families from all over the country and saw for myself the consequences of knife crime up close and the damage it does to families and communities is truly shocking. I will never forget as long as I live the terrible grief felt by those families. So although I do not believe that prison is the solution to every problem I do feel that in this case, prison will work and it will cause a change in behaviour. Concerns have been raised about locking up knife offenders with hardened criminals but I believe that if you are being convicted of a second knife offence, you have probably already become one.

This vote took place just before I was due to attend a public meeting about the Heights Primary School at St Andrews Church in Caversham. Fortunately, it came in time for me to travel and still get to chair the public meeting, so I’m sorry for not confirming earlier my attendance to those expecting me. Being an MP has many competing and important decisions to be made and sometimes you simply can’t be in two places at once.

I would like to thank all those who have backed the 'Knives Cost Lives’ campaign – I never gave up on it - and we can now at least declare victory having delivered on the deterrence element that so many local people wanted and supported.