Starmer warns ‘terrorism has changed’ and says UK faces new threat after Southport murders
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PM indicates government could change definition of terrorism to account for individuals such as Southport killer. Sir Keir Starmer has warned that “terrorism has changed” and Britain faces a new kind of threat, as the prime minister addressed the nation over the Southport attack.
![[Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine were all killed in the Southport attack]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/21/04/67fa74e82afdc4804fe840826b1172a3Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM3NDg0NTA2-2.78013108.jpg)
A public inquiry was announced on Monday into the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July, after Axel Rudakubana – then aged 17 – pleaded guilty to the knife attack which sparked a wave of far right-inspired race riots across swathes of the UK.
![[Axel Rudakubana’s crimes in Southport are ‘part of a wider pattern’ to which security services are no stranger]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/21/12/41a432f035a2625258a91cf485ef1b79Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM3NTQ5NTg1-2.78748434.jpg)
As legal restrictions protecting the integrity of the trial were lifted, it emerged that Rudakubana – who also admitted producing the deadly poison ricin and posessing an al-Qaeda training manual – had previously been referred three times to the anti-extremism programme Prevent.
Speaking from Downing Street on Tuesday morning, Sir Keir insisted that Southport must be “a line in the sand for Britain” as he vowed “fundamental change” in how the government protects its citizens. Warning that the UK faces a new threat from lone individuals fixated by extreme violence seemingly for its own sake, the prime minister strongly indicated that the UK’s longstanding legal definition of terrorism – as requiring an ideological motivation – could be overhauled.
Firmly rejecting claims of a “cover-up” which served to fuel the riots, and addressing the criticism that the Southport attack had not been classed as terrorism, Sir Keir said: “The blunt truth here is that this case is a sign Britain now faces a new threat – terrorism has changed.
