Keir Starmer says state failure 'leaps off the page' as public inquiry into barbaric Southport attack launches

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has launched a public inquiry into the failings that allowed Axel Rudakubana to kill three little girls in a “barbaric” attack. “Failure which in this case, frankly, leaps off the page,” he said.

Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, died after being stabbed during a Taylor Swift-themed children's holiday club class at the Hart Space on July 29, 2024.

Axel Rudakubana surprised everyone by changing his pleas on the first day of his trial at LIverpool Crown Court on Monday (January 20), pleading guilty to their murders. The 18-year-old also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of eight other children - who cannot be named for legal reasons - and to the attempted murder of dance instructor Leanne Lucas and local businessman John Hayes.

Rudakubana pleaded guilty to 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 an act of terrorism - in the form of an Al Qaeda manual.

Both items were discovered following searches of his home by police. The attack in Southport was not declared a terrorist incident, with Merseyside Police explaining: “What we can say is that from all those documents no one ideology was uncovered, and that is why this was not treated as terrorism.”

Following Rudakubana’s guilty plea, it was revealed that he was referred to the government anti-extremism scheme Prevent three times before the murders and excluded from Formby Range High School amid concerns over his fixation with violence.

It is also understood that just a week before the horrific attack at The Hart Space, Rudakubana, then 17, booked a taxi to take him to his former school, but was stopped by his father. He is said to have been wearing the same hooded sweatshirt and surgical mask he wore during the attack.

Announcing the public inquiry into the Southport attack on Monday evening, Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “It is essential that the families and the people of Southport can get answers about how this terrible attack could take place and about why this happened to their children. The perpetrator was in contact with a range of different state agencies throughout his teenage years.”

The Prime Minister said there were “grave questions” to answer about how the teenager, described by prosecutors as having “a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence”, came to be so dangerous despite being known to Prevent and other safeguarding services.

Speaking during a press conference on Tuesday (January 21), Sir Keir Starmer described the Southport attack as a “devastating moment in our history”. He continued: “The tragedy of the Southport killings must be a line in the sand for Britain.

“We must make sure the names of those three young girls are not associated with the vile perpetrator, but instead with a fundamental change in how Britain protects its citizens and its children.

“In pursuit of that, we must, of course, ask and answer difficult questions, questions that should be far-reaching, unburdened by cultural or institutional sensitivities and driven only by the pursuit of justice.

“The responsibility for this barbaric act lies, as it always does, with the vile individual who carried it out. But that is no comfort, and more importantly, it is no excuse. And so, 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 Prime Minister said the case has “only been focused on justice”. He explained: “If this trial had collapsed because I or anyone else had revealed crucial details while the police were investigating, while the case was being built, while we were awaiting a verdict, then the vile individual who committed these crimes would have walked away a free man – the prospect of justice destroyed for the victims and their families.

“I would never do that, and nobody would ever forgive me if I had. That is why the law of this country forbade me, or anyone else, from disclosing details sooner.”

Sir Starmer went on to say he’s “angry”, stating: “There are also questions about the accountability of the Whitehall and Westminster system – a system that is far too often driven by circling the institutional wagons, that does not react until justice is either hard won by campaigners, or until appalling tragedies like this.

“Time and again we see this pattern, and people are right to be angry about it. I’m angry about it.” He added, “Nothing will be off the table in this inquiry.”

Rudakubana will return to Liverpool Crown Court for sentencing on January 23, at 11.00am.