A parliamentary candidate has called for a “Glasgow” style approach to combatting violent crime - treating violence as a public health issue.

Geoffrey Seeff, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Chingford and Woodford Green, called for the shift in focus following the stabbing of a teenage boy at Woodford underground station this Monday (October 7).

In 2005, Glasgow’s police set up a violent crime reduction unit which adopted a public health approach to knife crime, in which police officers work with professionals in health, education and social work sectors to address violent crime holistically.

The approach has been incredibly successful. Between 2006 and 2011, 15 young people were fatally stabbed in Glasgow; between April 2011 and April 2016, none were.

Mr Seeff said: "As any concerned citizen I am saddened that such violence has visited this hitherto tranquil and relatively wealthy suburb of London.

“There are a host of related social factors that have given rise to the recent increase in violent crime, particularly amongst the young, but there is a certain inevitability about it when the very things that encourage harmony and deter aggression have been progressively cut back over many years.”

Last year, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched the city’s own violence reduction unit, keen to emulate Glasgow’s success.

However, when the unit launched Mr Khan called for patience with the method, which he said would not deliver results overnight.

Mr Seeff believes the closure of youth clubs, sporting facilities and arts programmes has had as much of an effect on fuelling violent crime as the reduction in police numbers.

He added: “Glasgow has famously treated knife crime as a health issue and has successfully introduced programmes of education, job training and sports into deprived areas.

“The cost of these initiatives is infinitely less than that of the damage caused by violent crime and it is high time we replicated Glasgow's model.”

*A 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on October 9 following the stabbing of a teenage boy at Woodford underground station on October 7.

The victim suffered a wound to his shoulder; he was taken to hospital where he remains in a stable condition.