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Ex-EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, whose brother was stabbed to death, has backed the Tories on crime, saying they would "make our streets safe again".Under a future Conservative government, she would head a panel deciding how grants were distributed to voluntary groups tackling youth crime, she said.
Her appointment was announced as leader David Cameron spoke in south London about "mending the broken society".
Ben Kinsella, 16, was stabbed 11 times in Islington, north London, in 2008.
Mr Cameron, who had earlier told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat his campaign team were "going to have to have a great last 10 days" to win the election, was spelling out how his vision of a "Big Society" could address Britain's problems.
He said the state had become "part of the problem" because it was trying to do too much to tackle crime on people's behalf.
"It's either doing things for you, telling you how to do them or making sure you're doing it their way.
"We've slowing been losing the value of responsibility in society," he said.
Miss Kinsella told the audience that her brother's death "completely destroyed my family".
"Ever since then we've been trying to come to terms with exactly what happened that night," she said.
Education and discipline
She said that since his death she had spent time campaigning about knife crime and was shocked at how young people were not concerned about the consequences of their actions.
Her conclusions were that education to help youngsters realise they did not need to get involved in gangs, rehabilitation of those whose lives had "gone off the rails", and discipline were essential to tackling the problem.
Miss Kinsella said the government had failed to live up to its promise to ensure anyone caught carrying a knife went to jail and that people were "becoming immune" to news of stabbing deaths.
"I want to put my faith in a government who will make our streets safe again," she said.
"I do think that David Cameron and the Conservatives will do this. Their policies on knife crime seem to be the toughest."
Miss Kinsella had appeared with Gordon Brown at the launch of the government's No To Knives initiative, in December 2008.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson earlier told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the idea of a "broken society" was "claptrap" and the Conservatives were "telling lies" about crime as statistics showed violent crime was falling.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.