Southport killings will be a "line in the sand" - PM
Sir Keir Starmer has announced a review of counter-terror systems and the way Britain protects children from violence available online
Last updated 21st Jan 2025
The Prime Minister has promised the brutal killings of three little girls in Southport will be a "line in the sand", as the Government announces an inquiry into state failings.
Sir Keir Starmer has said the failure of state institutions in the case of child-killer Axel Rudakubana "frankly leaps off the page".
The 18-year-old pleaded guilty on Monday to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July.
Despite contact with state agencies such as Prevent, authorities failed to stop the attack which claimed the lives of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.
The Home Secretary announced an inquiry into the case on Monday evening, saying the country needed "independent answers" on Prevent and other agencies' contact with the "extremely violent" Rudakubana and "how he came to be so dangerous".
Addressing the nation on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer said: "As part of the inquiry launched by the Home Secretary yesterday, I will not let any institution of the state deflect from their failure - failure which in this case, frankly, leaps off the page."
"For example, the perpetrator was referred to the Prevent programme on three separate occasions - in 2019 once and in 2021 twice.
"Yet, on each of these occasions, a judgment was made that he did not meet the threshold for intervention - a judgment that was clearly wrong and which failed those families. And I acknowledge that here today."
The PM added that the Southport killings "must be a line in the sand for Britain".
Sir Keir said the murders showed "terrorism has changed", with "acts of extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms", and he will change the law if necessary to tackle the "new and dangerous" threat.
He said: "The predominant threat was highly organised groups with clear political intent - groups like al Qaida.
"That threat, of course, remains, but now, alongside that, we also see acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom accessing all manner of material online - desperate for notoriety, sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, but fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake."