Britain is facing a new and dangerous form of extremism, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday, warning that isolated and disaffected people were being fueled by a “wave of violence that is freely available online.”
In his speech at Downing Street, Mr. Starmer said that unlike the terrorist threat posed by organized groups such as Al Qaeda, where there may be a clear vision, some young people are turning to extreme violence because of it. He compared the brutal killing of three girls in a dance class last July in Southport, England, to other school shootings in America.
On Monday, Axel Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty to killing three girls in the coastal town of Southport and attempting to kill 10 other people. Last summer’s attacks sparked riots in several towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland.
Serena Kennedy, chief constable of Merseyside Police, the force responsible for Southport, said in a statement on Monday that Mr. Rudakubana had an “unhealthy obsession with extreme violence,” evidenced by the numerous documents, photos, videos and articles about violence, conflict and genocide that he viewed on his digital devices.
“We know that he has researched a lot of documents on the Internet that show that addiction,” he said, adding: “In all those documents, not a single opinion was found, which is why this was not considered terrorism.”
On Monday the government announced a public inquiry after it emerged the perpetrator had been referred three times to the anti-terrorist program Prevent, aged 13 and 14, because of his propensity for extreme violence. Because he was considered unmoved by the terrorist ideology, he was not considered suitable for intervention.
Mr. Starmer said the decision was “clearly wrong,” and that he would not allow any government agency to “distract from its failure,” which, “this time, obviously, is off the page.”
He denied what the British media said that there had been a cover-up regarding the murders, saying that he had been informed of the ongoing police investigation but the law prevented him from disclosing the details of the perpetrator in advance. the case. Strict laws govern the disclosure of information during legal proceedings in Britain to ensure the right to a fair trial.
“If this case had fallen because I or someone else had disclosed important information while the police were still investigating when the case was being made, we were waiting for a verdict, then the bad person who committed these crimes would walk free,” said Mr Starmer.
In the days following the July 29 attack, right-wing critics suggested that information about the perpetrator was being suppressed to stoke public anger. The riots erupted after the rapid spread of misinformation about the killer’s identity – including false claims that he was a newly arrived immigrant from Syria. Mr. Rudakubana was born in Wales.
The police announced in October that after searching Mr. Rudakubana, found ricin, a lethal poison, and a PDF file titled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al Qaeda Training Manual.” But in statements on Monday, investigators made it clear that the killer’s interest in violence was broad and did not appear to stem from any one idea.
The Southport attack was “a sign,” Mr. Starmer, that terrorism is emerging and that Britain is facing a new threat and highly organized groups such as those linked to or inspired by Al Qaeda.
“We’re also seeing acts of extreme violence by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms, accessing all sorts of things on the internet, looking for a thrill,” Mr Starmer said, adding that, although such people were sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups. , ‘were focused on that extreme violence, which seemed to be for their own sake.
As such actions were designed to intimidate, Mr Starmer said, Britain’s counter-terrorism laws may need to change to recognize and deal with the new threat.
“I think it’s new — you’ve seen versions of it in America with mass school shootings,” he said. “It is not an isolated, horrific example. In my opinion it is an example of a different kind of intimidation.”
Speaking in Parliament, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, said Mr. Rudakubana admitted that he carried a knife ten times and that, although he had a violent record and was only 17 years old, he was able to easily order a knife from Amazon. .
“That is a disgrace and it must change,” he said, adding that the government would “bring in strong measures to deal with the sale of knives on the Internet.”
Ms. Cooper also told lawmakers that the government would contact technology companies to ask them to remove the harmful content that Mr. Rudakubana, added that firms “should not profit from managing content that puts children’s lives at risk.”
Previously, Mr. Starmer argued that the tragedy of the Southport massacre “must be a line in the British sand.” He said it would answer questions that are “far-reaching, unencumbered by cultural or institutional sensitivities and driven solely by the pursuit of justice.”
Chris Philp, spokesman for the opposition Conservative Party on domestic affairs, welcomed the establishment of a public inquiry but said it should be investigated “what the government knows when,” whether the authorities were “open and transparent to the public as possible.” has been,” and whether any lack of transparency contributed to the riots.
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