THE Home Secretary’s announcement that police should “ramp up” the use of stop and search “to prevent violence and save more lives” was slammed by campaigners today.

Suella Braverman said that officers who use the powers have her “full support,” claiming that it would comfort black mothers as “young black males” are “disproportionately affected by knife crime.”

But stop-and-search powers are reportedly disproportionately used on black and ethnic minority communities, and campaigners have previously warned that relaxing restrictions could compound discrimination.

Speaking in Commons, Ms Braverman said that the powers must be used “skilfully, responsibly and proportionately,” adding that it would be a “tragic mistake” to say the policy is too controversial to be used extensively.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper responded by saying Ms Braverman’s statement was a “wholly inadequate” response to knife crime.

And Labour MP Dawn Butler pointed out that stop and search has only been successful in finding weapons 9 per cent of the time, adding: “No other organisation that would ramp up something that only yielded a 9 per cent result.”

She questioned by the government was not putting forward a public health approach to knife crime as Scotland had done.

StopWatch executive director Habib Kadiri told the Morning Star: “It speaks to a chronic lack of political imagination that the only solution successive home secretaries have in response to any violence is to tell police forces to do more of the thing that never worked in the first place.

“This government views stop and search as a panacea with endless benefits, but the persistent ethnic disparity in stops paints the power as more a crutch for police forces to indulge in racially disproportionate policing.

“For Braverman to openly encourage the ramping up of the power hints at the desperate politics of a government in a crisis.”

Black Activists Rising Against Cuts national chairwoman Zita Holbourne said that young black people are already up to 32 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police.

She said: “There has been too much policy brutality targeting black people and others who face discrimination disproportionately.

“Given the state of UK policing and exposure of their racism, misogyny, homophobia and ableism, this ramp-up of powers is essentially signalling it’s OK for them to carry on.”

Ms Holbourne said that singling out young black men is racist stereotyping, encouraging more racial profiling by police, and warned that it puts them at risk of increased targeting and brutality.