Starmer: I knew about Rudakubana’s extremist history

After coming under criticism for not announcing a national inquiry over the grooming gangs scandal, Keir Starmer moved quickly on Monday to announce a public inquiry into the Southport murders. Following Axel Rudakubana’s guilty plea to the charge of murdering three girls in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last year, the Prime Minister this morning held a press conference promising that ‘no stone’ will be ‘left unturned’ when it comes to asking the ‘difficult questions… unburdened by cultural or institutional sensitivities’:

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.

There are plenty of difficult questions to ask after new details were made public regarding Rudakubana’s history. He was found in possession of a terrorist document and of the biological weapon, ricin. He was referred to the counter-extremism Prevent programme three times but on each occasion a ‘judgement was made that he did not meet the threshold for intervention’.