Yvette Cooper vows to herald Ronan’s regulation after mum’s ninja sword plea

The mum of a teenager stabbed to death in a senseless ninja sword attack has been told the deadly weapons will finally be banned.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to bring in Ronan’s Law, named after tragic teen Ronan Kanda, to prevent more families suffering the same heartbreak. The 16-year-old was stabbed from behind with a 20inch blade in a heartbreaking case of mistaken identity as he walked home in Wolverhampton in 2022.

Ms Cooper told his mum Pooja Kanda: “We will back you in your fight to save lives.” Ms Kanda told the Labour Party Conference her son had just completed his GCSEs when his life was snatched away from him. She said: “On 29 June 2022 my son was murdered in a senseless case of mistaken identity just a few metres away from our home in Wolverhampton.”

Emotional Ms Kanda told delegates the killer had collected the murder weapon after ordering it online using his mother’s ID and bank card. He had successfully ordered over 25 deadly weapons online. “There was no duty or care taken by anyone involved. Knife crime is terrifying communities and destroying families like mine. Too many mothers get the devastating news that I got… In that moment your entire existance changes forever.”

Ms Kanda said: “Ronan was a kind humble loving happy child. He was every mother’s dream son. I will always be so proud of the man he was becoming.”

She said “too many” mothers are getting the devastating message that their child has been killed, and said she was pleased Labour will at last act. Aspiring lawyer Ronan was attacked with a 20inch long sword as he walked home from a friend’s house in June 2022.

Ms Kanda previously pleaded with Rishi Sunak to finally ban the weapons alongside machetes and zombie-style knives. She told The Mirror last year: “My Ronan should have been able to come home that day, and everyone should be able to walk freely in their neighbourhoods without the threat of bumping into someone with a deadly weapon.

“How many more innocent people must tragically lose their lives before the Government listens to the cries of grieving parents such as myself, which have thus far only been heard by the Labour Party?”

Ronan’s killer was able to buy a knife online using his mum’s name and collect it from the Post Office with no ID checks being carried out. Ms Cooper said it was “inexplicable” that the Tories failed to outlaw the ninja knives. Last year 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin was killed with a similar weapon in a sickening attack in Hainault.

Ms Cooper said that knife crime, which has risen by 80% since 2015, is “devastating families and communities in every part of the country”.