GMB weatherman Alex Beresford interrupts debate with impassioned speech on knife crime epidemic

The GMB weatherman interrupted a debate about knife crime on the show

Good Morning Britain weatherman Alex Beresford interrupted a debate about knife crime on the show featuring John Apter, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales. During the discussion, Apter stated what he felt was the need for increased prison places as a deterrent to those who engage in knife crime. That suggestion was rejected by Beresford however, who passionately stated that the issue needs to be looked at in a different way. "Prison doesn't work though. It does not work," said Beresford. "I've grown up in some of these communities you guys are talking about. Prison is not a deterrent. Some of these boys don't fear prison. "If you don't change the environment you wont change anything and that's the key thing. "This has been happening for years. And it's not always in the media. It won't change. it's going to take several things to come together. Yes policing is one thing." https://twitter.com/GMB/status/1102867832134606848 Beresford continued, saying that environmental factors needed to be taken into account. "All of you guys on that side have benefited from the environment you've grown up in. You've benefited from this work environment. I've benefited from it. "But these boys, not all of them get to benefit from the environment. If we don't show them something else you won't change it, sorry." Previously, Apter had criticised Theresa May, whose cuts to police numbers he believes reflects her contempt for police officers. “It’s personal Piers. The Home Secretary, when she was Home Secretary [Theresa May] made it clear what her contempt for policing and police officers was," he said. “I’m proud to be a police officer, I talk about consequence of police cuts because I care about policing. For the leader of the country to say there is no correlation, it’s delusional. I couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Over the past ten years, we have lost almost 22,000 police officers. Not only the police officers, we’ve lost tens of thousands of police staff, community support officers. It’s also then the social services, the youth community, the education system, the criminal justice system. The government’s austerity plan has failed spectacularly. We warned this would happen.”