Tuesday, 30 September, 2003, 16:36 GMT 17:36 UK
MP calls for fireworks ban

Mr Howarth said criminals were using fireworks instead of bombs

A Merseyside MP has written to Home Secretary David Blunkett calling for a ban on fireworks.

The call from George Howarth, Labour MP for Knowsley North and Sefton East, comes two days after a police officer was injured by a firework thrown into a Liverpool police station.

It also follows a spate of other attacks including post boxes and telephone kiosks blown up by fireworks.

Mr Howarth said stricter licensing laws are not working and a ban is needed on the manufacture, import and sale of fireworks except for those used in public displays.

It is simply no longer safe to allow fireworks at all. George Howarth MP

He pointed out that Guy Fawkes night effectively begins in September and said some young people are "Using fireworks as weapons."

Lethal weapons

Mr Howarth said there was evidence that criminals were using fireworks as substitutes for bombs.

He wrote: "Unfortunately we have now reached the point where, through the actions of a minority of young people who are out of control, it is simply no longer safe to allow fireworks at all.

"I cannot think of any comparable circumstance when potentially lethal weapons are allowed to be sold to anybody over the designated age limit."