SIR Keir Starmer won’t change a law stopping the Southport killer being slapped with a lifetime sentence, No10 confirmed yesterday. Despite public outcry, a spokesperson for the PM said the issue is “not something we are looking at”. It came as Cabinet Minister John Healey admitted that UN rules on the “rights of a child” are what prevented Axel Rudakabana from being locked up for life.
![[Dashcam image of Axel Rudakubana exiting a taxi.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NINTCHDBPICT000966059468.jpg?strip=all&w=666)
The foreign-imposed convention bans countries giving whole life sentences to under-18s. Because Rudakabana was 17 at the time of his venomous attack, he was only passed a 52-year prison term. Sir Keir Starmer and his Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer have previously sparked outrage for insisting they will always “respect” international law.
![[Sir Keir Starmer leaving 10 Downing Street.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/british-prime-minister-sir-keir-965773045.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The pair’s allegiance to foreign courts led to the abandonment of the Rwanda deportation plan for illegal migrants and the reversal of a block on compensation for former Sinn Feinn leader Gerry Adams. A spokesperson for Sir Keir said: “I don't want to see this man ever coming out of prison.
“As the judge stated, it's likely he will never be released, and that he will be in prison for the rest of his life. “I know that's a view the country will endorse. This is understood to be one of the highest minimum terms in English legal history.
“We're restricted in our ability to extend whole life orders to under-18s by UN laws.”. But earlier in the day Mr Healey suggested ministers want the foreign rules looked over. He told Times Radio: “We owe it to those victims to consider and then deliver the changes that their memories deserve.”.
