Social media firms were last night ordered to take down ‘dangerous’ online material blamed for fuelling Southport killer Axel Rudakubana’s sick obsession with violence.
Yvette Cooper told the tech giants the Government would not tolerate them ‘profiting from hosting content that puts children’s lives at risk’.
The Home Secretary said an ‘online ecosystem’ was ‘radicalising our children while safety measures are whittled away’.
She also pledged a crackdown on knife sales online, saying it was a ‘total disgrace’ that Rudakubana was able to buy knives on Amazon – including two purchased a fortnight before the attack – despite being under age and having a record of violence, including an assault on a fellow pupil with a hockey stick.
Sir Keir Starmer said the Southport murders were ‘not a one-off’ and that Britain faced a new threat of ‘extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms’.
He confirmed that ministers are reviewing ‘the laws on what we can access online’, adding: ‘We still have rules in place in this country about what you can see at a cinema and yet online you can access no end of material.’
In an alarming revelation, Ms Cooper said that 162 people were referred to the anti-extremism Prevent programme last year after ‘expressing an interest in school massacres’.
Social media firms were last night ordered to take down ‘dangerous’ online material blamed for fuelling Southport killer Axel Rudakubana’s sick obsession with violence. Yvette Cooper (pictured) told the tech giants the Government would not tolerate them ‘profiting from hosting content that puts children’s lives at risk’
Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) said the Southport murders were ‘not a one-off’ and that Britain faced a new threat of ‘extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms’
The Home Secretary said there were ‘so many signs of how dangerous he had become, yet the action against him was far too weak’. There were up to 15 missed opportunities by government agencies to stop Rudakubana (pictured), the Times reported
She said she was ‘deeply disturbed’ that the number of under-18s investigated for involvement in terrorism had trebled in the past three years.
Rudakubana pleaded guilty on Monday to the murder of Bebe King, aged six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar during a 12-minute knife rampage in Southport last July.
Ministers have ordered a public inquiry into state failings in the case. The killer, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was referred three times to the Prevent programme but was deemed not to be motivated by terrorist ideology on each occasion.
Ms Cooper told MPs that a review of his contact with the programme found he had ‘admitted to having carried a knife more than ten times, yet the action against him was far too weak’.
She said he was referred to Prevent repeatedly because he was ‘expressing interest in school shootings, the London Bridge attack, the IRA, MI5 and the Middle East’.
A file photo of an aerial view of Rudakubana’s home on Old School Close in Banks, Lancashire
Police investigate on Hart Street in Southport on July 29 after the attacks at the dance class
Police officers outside the home of Rudakubana in Banks, Lancashire, on July 30, 2024
Sir Keir said it was a ‘devastating moment in our history’ and must be a ‘line in the sand’ for Britain, with ‘fundamental change’ in the way citizens are protected
The PM told a press conference in Downing Street that people were right to ‘demand answers’ over ‘failings’ in the case of Axel Rudakubana
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood (left) and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (right) were in No9 to watch the PM’s statement
The review, conducted since the summer, has concluded that ‘too much weight was placed on the absence of ideology’ and that his case ‘should not have been closed’ by counter-terror police who were assessing whether he posed a threat.
Ms Cooper said ‘multiple’ public bodies had had contact with Rudakubana in his teenage years.
Lancashire Police visited his home five times in response to calls about his disturbing behaviour. He was also in contact with social services, mental health workers and the local youth offending team, as well as Prevent.
The Home Secretary said there were ‘so many signs of how dangerous he had become, yet the action against him was far too weak’.
There were up to 15 missed opportunities by government agencies to stop Rudakubana, The Times reported.
Sir Keir acknowledged that many would view the murders as a terrorist attack. He said ministers were looking at whether to change the legal definition of terrorism to cover attacks which were designed to spread terror but which were not motivated by an obvious political ideology.
Rudakubana, who is now 18 and is due to be sentenced tomorrow, also admitted producing the deadly poison ricin and possessing an Al Qaeda training manual, both of which are terrorist offences.
