Theresa May says police knife crime claims are simply not true
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is to accuse Britain's top police officer of making untrue claims over the causes of rising knife crime.
In a hard-hitting speech to a policing conference, Mrs May will insist it is "simply not true" that incidents involving knives have increased due to Home Office-led changes to stop and search powers.
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, announced in June that he was sanctioning renewed use of the controversial powers as he explicitly linked their rationing with a 25 per cent jump in knife crime in the capital.
In a rebuke which signals ever-worsening relations between the Home Secretary, Sir Bernard and other senior officers, Mrs May will accuse them of "a knee-jerk reaction on the back of a false link".
The Home...