Why we’ll probably learn nothing from the Southport murders

Keir Starmer has pledged to act in light of the revelations about Southport killer Axel Rudakubana. The 17-year-old murdered three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last year, and it has since emerged that Rudakubana – who also pleaded guilty to owning an online version of an al-Qaeda training manual – had been flagged for his radicalism on three occasions between 2019 and 2021. As the Prime Minister explained: ‘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.’

Starmer acknowledged those failings and he made a promise to the families of the victims: ‘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.