A 17-year-old boy and two men, aged 18 and 20, attacked on New Year’s Eve, along with a 20-year-old man knifed in the early hours of the following morning, all died as a result of their injuries, while a fifth victim is critically ill in hospital.

Six suspects have been arrested and Metropolitan Police have called the situation “truly unusual and extraordinary”.

Michael Smith is founder and CEO of Words for Weapons, a Christian organisation that helps tackle knife crime by collecting knives and holding knife crime education workshops.

He told Premier the war on knife crime needs more input from everyone.

“It needs more work from the community, from the police, and from the government. “It needs more funding, thought and work put into it,” Smith said.

“I hope that churches and other organisations will step up to the plate do something positive in the community about it.”

Smith also made a plea for churches to use more of their resources to help combat the issue.

He told Premier: “There are many areas where young people need help; they need someone they can have confidence in and express their struggles and challenges to.

“I find on too many occasions our churches are closing up the…

According to research from National Debtline, one in six people say they are likely to fall behind in January as a result of Christmas spending, an increase from 11 per cent last year.

Graham Cleveland chairman of the Association of Christian Financial Advisors told Premier News Hour Christians should approach spending in biblical way.

“Looking at it from a biblical perspective, we should spend less than we earn,” he said.
 
“And if we spend more than we’re earning, what we’re saying is that God hasn’t provided enough.

“Therefore, there is a big question as Christians, if we overspend how do we go about changing that?”

He advised people to ask for the Holy Spirit’s help.

“I remember in the years that [my wife and I] didn’t have much money and we used to ask for God’s help and God’s wisdom,” Cleveland added.

The survey of more than 2,000 people found more than half of people had not saved for Christmas before December arrived, with only 14 per cent starting to save up for the extra costs of Christmas before last summer.

Cleveland said now is the time to start saving for Christmas spending.

He said: “At the end of each year or the start of each year we should set a budget and part of that budget should be Christmas, so I think it’s actually being wise.

“But actually implementing that and putting into practice is the difficult bit.

“Really try and make a budget. What do [you] realistically need in order to live? You…

Although Valentine’s Day is the next chocolate-heavy event on the consumer calendar, Easter is already making its presence felt on grocery shelves.

Easter Sunday, although falling early this year, is still 12 weeks away on April 1.

The Co-operative, which is giving over shelf space to Easter eggs, said many customers liked to buy them “as soon as they can”.

Customers have taken to social media to voice their opinions, with many saying they believe March 1 is a reasonable start date to be subjected to Easter advertising and related products.

Lucy Lawson, who posted a picture of chocolate eggs in a Co-operative store in Settle, North Yorkshire, simply wrote: “I kid you not,” while other opinions differed little from “way too early” to “that’s actually insane”.

A spokeswoman for the Co-operative said: “As a convenience retailer our stores often have limited backroom space which means products go on shelf when space appears.

“Sales figures also show that many customers will buy Easter eggs as soon as they can.”

A number of consumers have also posted pictures claiming to have seen Easter eggs on sale at Tesco stores, despite the supermarket saying it was not selling them currently, while Jon Gregory wrote on Twitter: “Get lost @Morrisons. Creme eggs, mini…

Average ticket prices across Britain went up by 3.4 per cent on Tuesday.

Liam Johnston, Executive Director and senior chaplain to British Transport Police told Premier people are “understandably” annoyed.

He said: “So many people over the last 10 years have seen zero or very little of an increase in their salaries in real-terms, let alone in actual monetary value.

“So to have this increase really hits people where it hurts and there’s a lot of people out there who are struggling day-to-day to make ends meet because the finances just don’t stretch to the end of the month.”

A number of season tickets have gone up by more than £100, including in Theresa May’s constituency of Maidenhead, where an annual pass to London rose by £104 to £3,092.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “We are investing in the biggest modernisation of our railways since the Victorian times to improve services for passengers – providing faster and better, more comfortable trains with extra seats.

“This includes the first trains running though London on the Crossrail project, an entirely new Thameslink rail service and continuing work on the transformative Great North Rail Project.

“We keep fare prices under constant review and the price rises for this year are capped in line with inflation, with 97p out of every £1 paid going back into the railway.”

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union handed out chocolates to “sweeten the bitter pill” of the price increase.