Keir Starmer dismissed claims of a Southport ‘cover-up’ today as he insisted there will be a full inquiry into how the state failed to stop the killer going on the rampage.
The PM told a press conference in Downing Street that people were right to ‘demand answers’ over ‘failings’ in the case of Axel Rudakubana.
Sir Keir said it was a ‘devastating moment in our history’ and must be a ‘line in the sand’ for Britain, with ‘fundamental change’ in the way citizens are protected.
He stressed that the probe should be ‘unburdened by cultural sensitivities’ and institutions will not be allowed to ‘deflect’ responsibility. Too often in Westminster the ‘wagons were circled’, he said. ‘I’m angry about it… Nothing will be off the table in this inquiry.’
The premier said that he had stressed in August that ‘justice must be done’ and ‘above all we must not interfere’.
But he flatly rejected allegations of a ‘cover-up’ of terrorist links in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity – which was followed by a wave of rioting across the country. He said he could not risk the case collapsing and the ‘vile’ perpetrator walking away free.
‘That is why the law of this country forbade me or anybody else from disclosing details sooner,’ he said.
Sir Keir said he was under ‘no illusions’ that the lack of ‘trust’ will continue until the state is ‘honest’ about problems and ‘roots them out’.
But he insisted he had been inspired by the response of the Southport community, who rebuilt despite the tragedy being compounded by violence on the streets.
Rudakubana pleaded guilty yesterday to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July.
It has emerged he was referred three times to anti-extremism programme Prevent amid concerns over his fixation with violence.
But despite this and contact with other state agencies, the 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 PM told a press conference in Downing Street that people were right to ‘demand answers’ over ‘failings’ in the case of Axel Rudakubana
Sir Keir said it was a ‘devastating moment in our history’ and must be a ‘line in the sand’ for Britain, with ‘fundamental change’ in the way citizens are protected
Merseyside Police today issued this mugshot of Axel Rudakubana, 18, of Banks, Lancashire, after he pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to all 16 counts he was charged with
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood (left) and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (right) were in No9 to watch the PM’s statement
Sir Keir said: ‘No words come anywhere close to expressing the brutality and horror in this case.
‘Every parent in Britain will have had the same thought. It could have been anywhere, it could have been our children, but it was Southport. It was Bebe, six years old. Elsie, seven. Alice, nine.
‘Back in August, I said there will be a time for questions, but that first, justice had to be done, and that, above all, we must not interfere with the work of the police, the prosecutors and the delivery of that justice.
‘Well, yesterday, thankfully, a measure of justice was done, but it won’t bring those girls back to their families, and it won’t remove the trauma from the lives of those who were injured, their lives will never be the same.
‘So before I turn to the questions that must now be answered for the families and the nation, I first want to recognise their unimaginable grief, because I know the whole country grieves for them.
‘The tragedy of the Southport killings must be a line in the sand for Britain.’
Sir Keir said the case 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.
Announcing an inquiry last night, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the country needed ‘independent answers’ on Prevent and other agencies’ contact with the ‘extremely violent’ Rudakubana and ‘how he came to be so dangerous’.
Following Rudakubana’s guilty pleas, Sir Keir described the 18-year-old as ‘vile and sick’, and said there were ‘grave questions to answer’ on how the state ‘failed’ to protect the three girls.
The PM added: ‘Britain will rightly demand answers, and we will leave no stone unturned in that pursuit.’
As well as the three murders, Rudakubana admitted 10 counts of attempted murder, possession of a knife, production of a biological toxin, ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit acts of terrorism.
The terrorism offence relates to a PDF file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual.
He is also understood to have possessed numerous other documents on violent subjects, including A Concise History Of Nazi Germany, The Myth Of The Remote Controlled Car Bomb and Amerindian Torture And Cultural Violence.
Sources said the material discovered showed an ‘obsession with extreme violence’ but there was no evidence he ascribed to any political or religious ideology or was ‘fighting for a cause’.
With some opposition figures alleging a ‘cover-up’ of Rudakubana’s contact with the authorities, Sir Keir is likely to face questions about why this information had not been published earlier.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage insisted he was ‘right all along’ when he claimed in the summer that information had been withheld from the public.
But Ms Cooper said the information about Rudakubana’s background could not be made public earlier ‘to avoid jeopardising the legal proceedings or prejudicing the possible jury trial, in line with the normal rules of the British justice system’.
There are also likely to be questions about why the charges relating to the possession of ricin and the al Qaida training manual were not made public for three months after the teenager’s arrest.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said there were many questions that ‘remain unanswered about what went wrong’.
Welcoming the announcement of a public inquiry, he said: ‘We also need to know who in Government knew what and when, as well as why the authorities may have withheld some information from the public.’
Mr Philp told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘There is quite a lot you can put into the public domain without prejudicing the judicial proceedings.
‘In previous incidents, we’ve seen more information being put out and Jonathan Hall drew attention to the risks of not putting out information, it undermines trust in justice, but it also creates a void.
‘So, I think these are legitimate questions. I think it’s important the inquiry looks at those questions as well as what happened before this appalling incident.’
Asked whether he was confident in the Prevent counter-terrorism programme, he told Times Radio: ‘The Prevent programme is a long-running programme. It deals with about 7,000 referrals per year.
‘There was quite a comprehensive review of Prevent by William Shawcross that was published in February of last year … So, one question I’ll be asking the Government is whether they plan to implement the recommendations in the Shawcross report.
A car burns after being overturned during a protest in Middlesbrough on August 4, 2024
Police officers at Rudakubana’s home on Old School Close in Banks, Lancashire, last October
At 11 years old, Rudakubana appeared dressed as Doctor Who in a television advert for BBC Children In Need, after being recruited through a casting agency, it is understood.
‘I think it’s just important the inquiry looks at all of this, gets to the truth both about what happened beforehand, but critically also the Government’s response afterwards, and what they knew when and whether they should have put more information into the public domain.
‘It appears they withheld information about the perpetrator, potentially, on CPS advice.
‘William Shawcross has raised questions over that, saying that if you leave a void, then speculation fills it, and William Shawcross is obviously an expert lawyer, and also says there’s quite a lot you can say about these incidents afterwards.
‘But clearly in this case, the Government, it appears, didn’t share information which they had in their possession.’
