The King said he was “riveted” to hear the story of a Royal Marine and boxer as he hosted actor Idris Elba, recipients of the King’s Trust and campaigners at St James’s Palace.
Kyle Shaw-Tullin, a Royal Marine and Team GB boxer, who was stabbed in Oldham as a teenager, told a table discussion that getting back in the boxing ring after the attack helped keep him out of trouble.
Charles said it was “a good point” about “being too exhausted to get into trouble”.
Charles also invited the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who had come from chairing a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, in attendance too.
He said he was “enormously grateful” for the support of the attendees.
The King said: “The critical thing is how do we induce the action.
“So often I can’t help feeling with problems how do you join up all the dots between different departments and different agencies and voluntary organisations?
“This is the key, how do we do that?
“Is there some one person who can help make sure all this happens?”
The prime minister lauded Elba’s “brilliant” campaign against knife crime called Don’t Stop Your Future and congratulated other activists for their work, calling them “inspirational”.
Meanwhile, the Luther star said there had been some “milestones” in knife crime campaigning but added “we can’t take out foot off the pedal”.
Elba said: “We’ve seen some things happen, and that’s great.
“There’s also been a small rise in knife crime at the same time, OK?
“And compared to the year before that rising knife crime might be less than the year before, but it was still a rise.
“So we can’t take our foot off the pedal.
“We have to stay focused.”
