Britain is facing a new and dangerous form of extremism, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday, warning that loners and misfits were being radicalized by “a tidal wave of violence freely available online”.
In a speech at Downing StreetMr Starmer said that unlike the terrorist threat posed by organized groups like Al Qaeda, where a clear ideology could be identified, some young people were obsessed with extreme violence itself. He compared the brutal killing of three girls during a dance class last July in Southport, England, to some school shootings seen in the United States.
On Monday, Axel Rudakubana, 18, admitted murdering three girls in the coastal town of Southport and attempting to kill 10 others. Last summer’s attack sparked riots in several cities in England and Northern Ireland.
Serena Kennedy, head of Merseyside Police, the force which covers Southport, said in a statement On Monday, Mr. Rudakubana had “an unhealthy obsession with extreme violence”, as evidenced by a multitude of documents, images, videos and texts on violence, conflict and genocide that he had viewed on his devices digital.
“We know that he had searched for many documents online that show this obsession,” she said, adding: “Of all these documents, no ideology was discovered, and that is why this does not was not treated as terrorism.”
On Monday, the government announced a public inquiry after it emerged the perpetrator was referred three times to an anti-terrorism program called Prevent, when he was 13 and 14, because of his interest in violence extreme. Because he was not found to be motivated by terrorist ideology, he was not deemed fit to intervene.
Mr Starmer said the judgment was “clearly wrong” and that he would not let any institution of state “distract attention from its failure”, which “in this case, frankly, is flying off the pages”.
He rejected claims by right-wing British media that the killings were covered up, saying he had been informed of the police investigation while it was underway but that the law prevented him from disclosing information about the perpetrator of the murders before any possible investigation. trial. Strict rules govern the disclosure of information during active legal proceedings in Britain to ensure the right to a fair trial.
“If this trial had failed because I or anyone else revealed crucial details while the police were investigating while the case was being developed, then we were waiting for a verdict, then the despicable individual who committed these crimes would have walked away a free man,” Mr Starmer said.
In the days following the July 29 attack, right-wing critics suggested that information about the bomber had been suppressed in order to contain public anger. The riots erupted after false information about the killer’s identity quickly spread, including false claims that he was an undocumented immigrant who had recently arrived from Syria. Mr Rudakubana was born in Wales.
Police announced in October that after searching Mr. Rudakubana’s house, they found ricin, a deadly toxin, and a PDF file titled “Military Studies in Jihad Against Tyrants: The Training Manual for Al-Qaeda.” But in statements Monday, investigators made clear that the killer’s interest in violence was wide-ranging and did not appear to stem from any single ideology.
The Southport attack was “a sign”, Mr Starmer said, that terrorism was evolving and Britain faced a new threat from more organized groups such as those linked to or inspired by Al-Qaeda.
“We are also seeing acts of extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms, accessing all sorts of materials online, desperate to make themselves known,” Mr Starmer said, adding that, although these people were sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, they were “obsessed with this extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake”.
Since such acts were intended to terrorize, Mr Starmer said, Britain’s anti-terrorism laws may need to be changed to recognize and combat the new threat.
“I think it’s new — you’ve seen versions of it in America with some of the mass school shootings,” he said. “This is not an isolated, horrible example. This is, in my opinion, an example of a different type of threat.
Speaking in Parliament, Yvette Cooper, the interior minister, said Mr Rudakubana had admitted carrying a knife 10 times and although he had a criminal record of violence and was only 17, he could easily order a knife on Amazon. .
“It’s a complete disgrace and needs to change,” she said, adding that the government “will put in place tougher measures to tackle the sale of knives online.”
Ms Cooper also told lawmakers the government would contact tech companies to ask them to remove dangerous content Mr Rudakubana had viewed, adding that companies “should not profit from hosting life-threatening content children.”
Earlier, Mr Starmer argued that the tragedy of the Southport murders “must be a line in the sand for Britain”. He said he would address issues that were “far-reaching, free from cultural or institutional sensitivities and motivated solely by the pursuit of justice.”
Chris Philp, speaking on behalf of the opposition Conservative Party on Home Affairs, welcomed the establishment of a public inquiry, but said it would have to examine “what the government knew at what time”, whether the authorities were “as open and transparent as they could have been to the public” and whether a lack transparency had contributed to the riots.
