Black Lives Matter isn't needed in the UK – protesters are focusing on the wrong issues

I am sitting with David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, in north London, and we are surrounded by a group of the UK's young villains. They have been locked up in a secure unit for a variety of crimes, and are all from London.

When I asked if they regretted their crimes, it was clear that the black youngsters felt they were the were wronged party. For them the victim of the crime was not the other black youngster they had assaulted, but them. It was clear that being at the secure unit had taught them nothing about any ownership of their crime, and in many cases they would be ready to re-offend once they were released.

According to Youth Justice statistics, black young people had the highest reoffending rate of 44.9% in 2013/14, compared with 38.4% for white young people. They make up 21% of those in youth custody, yet they are only 4% of the population, compared to whites, who make up 60% in custody, but are 86% of the population.

Currently there are 409 black males in youth custody compared to 627 white males; this is a significant disproportion. Linked to this is the fact that the UK faced 15 deaths by knife crime last year, and most of these were crimes committed by black youths on another black youth.

In America, the Black Lives Matter movement has been driven by social media and captured the headlines recently following the deaths of black men at the hands of police caught on camera. It's clear the movement is needed in America. So why is it that we now have the 'Black Lives Matter' movement in the UK, when we have had only one shooting of a black man by the police, five years ago? In that time we have had over 100 deaths of young black males at the hands of another black male.

Surely the protest movement needs to show solidarity with what is happening in America, but have a clearer focus for those us living in the UK.

We need to get over this cultural subservience to the USA. For years we tried to sing and rap like our American cousins and it sounded fake. We soon found our confidence and invented grime, which has gone international. The same can be said about the movie industry, once we found our confidence, American studios were begging us to send us the next Idris Elba or Naomi Harris.

Black Lives Matter only makes sense when we come to terms with the reality of our British context. The days of black men dying in police custody are few, the numbers of Stop and Search has significantly been reduced and overall youth crime has been reduced.

It is much easier to blame a racist police force than confront the demon that exits within.

Black Lives Matters UK has missed a trick; they should have turned their protests and social media campaign into introspection about why black lives do not matter to so many black males in the UK.

They should speak about how the knife crime epidemic has come from a 'self-loathing' that manifests when they are challenged by someone who looks like them. The Black Community may have gone into some kind of denial over this embarrassing issue. It is much easier to blame a racist police force than confront the demon that exits within.

What is happening in the UK with black males disportionately in custody, however, is a scandal. But we seem unable to give the issue a focus. The problem is that matters like these need good leadership and great ideas to solve them.

The first thing it needs is collective ownership. White magistrates have got to be fairer in their sentencing practices. We know of too many cases when it comes to burglary when a white youth is given a community sentence compared to a black youth who is locked up.

Why does this happen? It is really the other side of the coin to why many black youth are 'killing themselves'. The wider society needs to take ownership of their fear of black men. The black male body becomes something that needs to be locked away and put under serious surveillance.

Wider society needs to take ownership of their fear of black men. The black male body becomes something that needs to be locked away and put under serious surveillance.

Let's start a movement now called Black Lives Matter UK. Let's go to the youth clubs, to the street corners, to the football pitches. Let's confront our black youth on social media and in the schools. We can have a peaceful protest which asks them to love themselves and stop killing their brothers. Apart from the victim's mothers, this voice within black communities will be silenced.

The irony is that while Black Lives Matter have blocked the streets inspired by the American revolt, the real revolution has come from two Tory Prime Minsters. David Cameron recently commissioned an inquiry into why so many black young men were in custody rather than at our top universities. And Theresa May has said her priority is reducing the amount of black males in the justice system.

Young black men continue to languish in custody with no one treating their biggest demon. They will then be released into a world where magistrates and black activists are all in denial. Thank God for Tory prime ministers who are willing to face the real issue.

Dr Tony Sewell CBE is the director of the charity Generating Genius.