‘Terrorism has changed’: Southport knife attack a sign the country faces a new threat, PM says

Sir Keir Starmer has said Britain faces a new threat and that terrorism has changed in light of the Southport attack last summer.

Speaking the day after Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana admitted murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, the prime minister said the incident “is a sign Britain now faces a new threat”.

“Terrorism has changed,” he told a news conference in Downing Street.

“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 seeming only for its own sake.”

He added: “If a law needs to change to recognise this new and dangerous threat, then we will change it and quickly, and we will also review our entire counter-extremist system to make sure we have what we need to defeat it.”

The PM announced Sir David Anderson KC, an independent reviewer of terror legislation, has been appointed as the new independent commissioner for Prevent, the UK’s anti-extremism scheme.

On Monday, Rudakubana unexpectedly pleaded guilty to murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, on 29 July last year on what was due to be the first day of his trial.

After his guilty plea, it emerged Rudakubana was referred to the Prevent scheme three times in the 17 months before the attack over concerns about his fixation with violence, but on each occasion a judgement was made that he did not require intervention.

Sir Keir said those decisions were “clearly wrong” and “failed” the families of the victims.

When addressing the question of whether the attack was terrorism, the prime minister said the “blunt truth” was that Britain faces “a new threat” and that “terrorism has changed”.

“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 seeming only for its own sake.”

The government will review the country’s “entire counter-terrorism system”, the prime minister added.

Sir Keir said attackers are “becoming harder to spot” and the UK cannot have a system that fails to tackle people who are a danger to others.

“If the law needs to change to recognise this new and dangerous threat, then we will change it, and quickly.”

He says that children need to be protected from the “tidal wave” of violence available online.

Anyone referred to the Prevent scheme is assessed and if deemed a terrorism risk referred to another programme, Channel, although many referrals don’t result in any further police action.

Rudakubana admitted yesterday to 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a kitchen knife during the attack in the Merseyside town.

A week before the attack, Rudakubana, then 17, booked a taxi to take him to Range High School in Formby, but his father stopped him from leaving, it is understood.

The teenager, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, was expelled from the school in about 2019 over claims he was carrying a knife after telling Childline he was being racially bullied and brought the knife to protect himself.

It is understood that, after his exclusion, he returned to the school to target a former bully or someone he had a grievance with and assaulted someone with a hockey stick.

Rudakubana then attended two specialist schools, where teachers were concerned about his behaviour.

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