A Redbridge teacher union representative has been suspended after saying it is better to let one child get stabbed than install knife arches at every Redbridge school.

Kash Malik previously told the Recorder that knife crime is a deep-rooted problem and society needs to let it “get worse” so that the government is forced to look the “real cause”.

“It is better to have one child stabbed at school than to have an environment where no one is stabbed at school and everyone carries knives outside of school,” he said.

“If we create an environment like that in schools then we have a problem in society and we are just patching it up instead of sorting out the cause of why young people feel so insecure and vulnerable.

“Parents, given that argument, would understand it. Knife arches normalise carrying a blade and it is putting a plaster over the problem.”

The National Education Union (NEU) today (Thursday, March 21) spoke out about Mr Malik’s comments and said it “categorically rejects and does not condone the comments made by Kash Malick on knife crime”.

“The national officers of the union have taken the decision to immediately suspend him from his position as local officer while we investigate his comments,” a NEU spokeswoman said.

Mr Malik has been approached for comment