A senior Conservative frontbencher has said the government must reveal “what they knew and when” about Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, who pleaded guilty on Monday to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July.
Chris Philp was asked on Tuesday morning why Prevent, the UK’s counter-extremism programme, had failed to stop Rudakubana despite him being referred to it three times.
Keir Starmer is set to address accusations that the government tried to cover up details about the Southport killer in a statement in Downing Street.
The shadow home secretary told GB News: “I think we need to look into that through the public inquiry that was announced yesterday, we support that inquiry, and that is the kind of question it needs to get to the bottom of.
“I think the inquiry also needs to look at the government’s handling of the aftermath of these terrible murders when it appears to me they knew information for example about the Prevent referrals which they did not share with the public, apparently on CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] advice.
“So we need to look at whether that was the right thing to do and the government has questions to answer about what they knew and when, why they didn’t disclose that information.”
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The prime minister is set to give a statement in Downing Street after the home secretary announced a public inquiry into the Southport case. Starmer is reportedly expected to argue that if he or anyone else had revealed more details about the killer before the trial then it may have collapsed.
In a statement on Monday, Starmer welcomed Rudakubana’s guilty plea but said it would be a “moment of trauma for the nation”.
The prime minister said there were “grave questions to answer as to how the state failed in its ultimate duty to protect these young girls”.
He added: “Britain will rightly demand answers. And we will leave no stone unturned in that pursuit.
“At the centre of this horrific event, there is still a family and community grief that is raw; a pain that not even justice can ever truly heal.
“Although no words today can ever truly convey the depths of that pain, I want the families to know that our thoughts are with them and everyone in Southport affected by this barbaric crime. The whole nation grieves with them.”
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, has said that “there were clearly multiple state failings and it must never happen again” and “there remain serious questions about the transparency of government information at the time of the unrest that followed these horrific killings”.
She claimed that “when the Conservatives were trying to toughen the Prevent anti-extremism programme, Starmer and Cooper were running for office on manifestos worried about Prevent ‘alienating communities’”.
“A public inquiry is important, but Labour must not use it to hide behind their own failings”, she posted to X (formerly Twitter).
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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