Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday that the killing of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class must lead to “fundamental change” in how the British state protects citizens and a reckoning with new threats from violent individuals that test the traditional definition of terrorism.
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Starmer said the government must also answer “tough questions” about how authorities failed to stop a violence-obsessed teenager before he stabbed three young girls to death in the seaside town of Southport in July.
In a televised statement, the prime minister said that a public inquiry would tackle failings in the case of Axel Rudakubana, who injured another eight children, their instructor and a passer-by.
“The tragedy of the Southport killings must be a line in the sand for Britain,” Starmer said.
Rudakubana, 18, unexpectedly changed his pleas to guilty on Monday, the first day of his trial at Liverpool Crown Court. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.
His guilty plea means that details that had been withheld from the public to try to ensure a fair trial can now be reported. They include the fact that Rudakubana was referred three times to the government’s anti-extremism programme, Prevent, when he was 13 and 14, and was in contact with multiple state agencies – all of whom failed to spot the danger he posed.
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