Former Apprentice contestant aiming to get Londoners to hand in their knives
Tom Skinner has set up a knife amnesty box in his boxing gym, based in Brentwood.
A star of the Apprentice is encouraging people to hand in their knives to his boxing gym in Brentwood.
Tom Skinner, who was on the fifteenth series of the TV show, is aiming to reduce knife crime in London.
He has set up a knife amnesty box in his Bosh Gym, where people can hand in their weapons - and is also offering to pay for people's train fares to get to the gym if it's too expensive.
The Apprentice star has described knife crime as "rife" in London - and has used his profile on X to talk about knife crime in the capital, with one tweet about it getting around 2.5 million views.
In that tweet, he said that he wants to offer "a safe space for anyone who feels scared, threatened, or pressured into carrying a knife."
Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, Tom said "We've already had 2 knives handed in, we'll dispose of them, give them to the police, get rid of them.
"If you don't want to talk to anyone - come in here, get rid of your knife, put it away, don't carry it around anymore. If you want to talk to someone, come in and talk. If you want to learn how to box, come and learn how to box."
"Everyone is carrying a knife because they're scared the next person is carrying a knife"
Hughie Robertson, who runs the gym alongside Tom Skinner, said that there's plenty of benefits to boxing.
"It's discipline as well - if you train hard it clears your mind... just knowing that you can do it but don't have to."
Patrick Campbell is a mentor at Bosh Gym and provides young people who hand in a knife with advice and information about the dangers of knife crime. He said that fear is a factor in why people carry knives.
"What you have nowadays is that gang violence has gone out the window. Everyone is carrying a knife because they're scared the next person is carrying a knife... people are genuinely scared."