Watford FC striker Andre Gray has made some opinionated remarks regarding the Prime Minister after he helped a crime-fighting charity.
The speedy striker protested with anti-knife crime organisation, The Wickers Charity, outside Parliament on August 22. This followed a letter being sent to Downing Street with a manifesto on how to tackle knife crime.
Gray, 28, has been vocal in the past regarding his history with knife crime – he has a permanent scar on his face from when he was stabbed on a night out in Wolverhampton in 2011.
He admitted he was involved with ‘gang trouble’ throughout his youth and that he “learned from my mistakes and wrongdoing.”
On PM Boris Johnson, Gray told The Mirror: “(Mr Johnson) probably won’t reply. He will never understand the struggle of being on a council estate, of living on benefits and being from broken homes, where your father’s gone or in jail.”
He added that the government was “brushing knife crime under the carpet. As soon as someone takes over and there’s a new government, there’s always something else going on – such as Brexit.”
One of the focuses of the campaign was to reduce government cuts to youth services.
Gray added the cuts ‘almost antagonised’ knife crime.
“We need funding and youth facilities back.”
A Government spokesman said: “We are determined to make our streets safer which is why we are recruiting 20,000 new police officers to protect our communities, and have made it easier for them to use stop and search powers.
“Our Serious Violence Strategy also focuses on steering young people away from knife crime.
“Our #knifefree campaign challenges the myth that carrying a knife makes you safer and we are investing over £220 million in early intervention projects.”
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