Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded to unfounded claims of a ‘cover-up’ within the Southport stabbing investigation in an emergency press conference at Downing Street
Keir Starmer delivers statement about Southport attack
Keir Starmer has hit out at unfounded claims of a “cover-up” over the Southport murders as he praised hundreds of staff who have been working to get justice.
The Prime Minister said “hundreds, if not thousands, of dedicated public servants”, including police officers and prosecutors, had been working under “absolutely harrowing circumstance” to try to get a guilty verdict. Slamming claims of a “cover-up”, he warned that revealing details about the case publicly could’ve put the trial at risk of collapse, leaving the vile killer to walk away a “free man”.
Vile killer Axel Rudakubana yesterday pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls in a frenzied attack on a Taylor Swift-themed class on July 29. Following his guilty plea, and the lifting of legal restrictions, it emerged Rudakubana had been referred to the government’s anti-radicalisation programme, Prevent, on three occasions between December 2019 and April 2021 aged 13 and 14. He was first referred to Prevent when he was just 13 years old, after he reportedly viewed material relating to US school shootings. But on each of these occasions, he did not meet the threshold for intervention.
Nigel Farage last night claimed there had been a “gigantic cover-up” because this information had not been released earlier. Similar speculation of a “cover-up” and information being withheld fuelled widespread riots across the country last summer. But he failed to explain to people that there are strict laws which stop details of a case being talked about in public to make sure justice can be served.
Contempt of court laws state that information that could influence a case must not be released publicly during a trial. For instance people must not speak publicly or post on social media about a defendant’s previous convictions or details about their character that might influence a jury’s judgment. If contempt of court takes place, the trial may be at risk of being abandoned or restarted if it is argued that the defendant – the person accused of a crime – did not have a right to a fair trial.
When Rudakubana unexpectedly pleaded guilty on Monday, the information about him was allowed to be released as a trial will no longer need to take place – and so there is no risk of influencing it.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Starmer said: “Throughout this case, up to this point, we have only been focussed on justice. If this trial had collapsed because I or anyone else had revealed crucial details while police were investigating, while the case was being built, while we were awaiting a verdict, then the vile individual who committed these crimes would have walked away a free man.
“The prospect of justice destroyed for the victims and their families. I would never do that and nobody would ever forgive me if I had. That is why the law of this country forbade me or anyone else from disclosing details sooner.”
On Monday Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced a public inquiry into the Southport stabbings to examine how state agencies “failed” the victims. She said the probe was to “get to the truth about what happened and what needs to change”.
The PM said that failures to make changes after inquiries are the “oxygen for wider conspiracy” as he said “nothing will be off the table” in the inquiry into the Southport attack. “Southport must be a line in the sand, but nothing will be off the table in this inquiry, nothing, and most importantly, it will lead to change,” he said.
“I know people will be watching right now, and they’ll be saying, we’ve heard all this before, the promises, the sorrow, the inquiry that comes and goes, and inability to change that frankly, has become the oxygen for wider conspiracy. And we’ve seen that throughout this case – a suggestion that there has been a cover up.
“I want to put on record that yesterday’s guilty verdict only happened because hundreds, if not thousands, of dedicated public servants worked towards it, many of whom endured absolutely harrowing circumstances, particularly in the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. That is their job. They are brilliant at it.”
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During the statement Mr Starmer paid tribute to Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, who were killed in last summer’s attack. He spoke of the “unimaginable grief” of their families and said they are owed answers.
He told the nation bluntly that “terrorism has changed” in this country and that we now face a “new threat”. He said Britain used to face threats predominantly from organised groups “with clear political intent” like Al Qaeda but that now we see “loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms” accessing material online “desperate for notoriety”.
The PM vowed to review our entire “counter-extremist system” as well as look at whether terrorism laws need to change. And he also criticised social media giants who make it easy for people to access a “tidal wave of violence” on their sites.