Watch the prime minister’s speech in full as he warned of a new type of terrorism facing Britain ‘perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom’
The Southport murders are a sign that Britain faces a “new threat” of terrorism, the prime minister has warned, as he vowed “nothing will be off the table” during the inquiry into the attack.
Keir Starmer said the failure of state institutions in the Southport case “frankly leaps off the page” and he will not let any “deflect from their failure”.
Speaking to the nation from Downing Street, Starmer announced that the country’s entire counter-extremist system was being reviewed as he pointed to a new type of terrorism facing Britain “perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom.”
“The blunt truth here is that this case is a sign,” the PM said. “Britain now faces a new threat. Terrorism has changed.
“In the past, the predominant threat was highly organised groups with clear political intent, groups like Al Qaeda. 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.”
Starmer’s comments come after the government announced an inquiry into how the state failed to identify the risk posed by Southport killer, Axel Rudakubana.
The 18-year-old pleaded guilty on Monday to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July, 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.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper 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”.
The PM said that as part of the inquiry, he “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,” he said.
“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 law will change if necessary to tackle the “new and dangerous” threat, he added, saying there must be “fundamental change” in how the country protects its children.
He said the Southport case is “not an isolated, ghastly example,” but a “new and dangerous”, adding that whatever changes were necessary in the law would be made.
Tory leader Badenoch said ministers must give a “complete account” of who “knew what and when” about Rudakubana, as she piled pressure on the government to account for how it responded to the Southport attacks.
Posting on X, she said that although she welcomes the inquiry, “there remain serious questions about the transparency of government information at the time of the unrest that followed these horrific killings.”
Full details of the prosecution case will be made public when Rudakubana is sentenced on Thursday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
He is not expected to receive a whole life order because he was 17 at the time of the murders. The measures can normally only be imposed on criminals aged 21 or over, and are usually only considered for those aged 18 to 20 in exceptional circumstances.
Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff, also admitted the attempted murders of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
He further pleaded guilty to possessing a knife on the date of the attack, production of a biological toxin, ricin, on or before July 29, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
The terrorism offence relates to a PDF file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual, which he is said to have possessed between August 29, 2021 and July 30, 2024.
The ricin, a deadly poison, and the document were found during searches of the home in Old School Close which he shared with his parents, who are originally from Rwanda.
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