Rachel Reeves has said “no stone should be left unturned” in the public inquiry into the Southport stabbings and that social media companies have a moral responsibility to remove harmful online content.
The Chancellor said the events that led up to the attack in July last year would need to be scrutinised in detail to ensure a similar incident could never happen again.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, was jailed for a minimum of 52 years for the murder of three girls who were attending a Taylor Swift dance event at a centre in the Merseyside town.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, died from their injuries.
Speaking to Trevor Phillips on his Sunday morning programme on Sky News, Ms Reeves said: “It’s appalling what happened in Southport and the evil, cowardly acts of that man.
“The impact will be felt forever by those families, and it’s right that there’s now a public inquiry to establish what on earth went wrong.”
She added: “The man was referred three times to Prevent, he’d been found carrying a knife on multiple occasions, and he’d attacked a boy he was at school with, and yet he was able to slip through the system.
“And so it is absolutely essential that we learn lessons, not just to provide some sort of understanding for the families of who have lost their loved ones, but also to stop anything like this ever happening again.
“And no stone should be left unturned in that inquiry.”
It is absolutely essential that we learn lessons, not just to provide some sort of understanding for the families of who have lost their loved ones, but also to stop anything like this ever happening again
Ms Reeves said the inquiry would need to establish Prevent’s approach to determining ideology and what they regard as terror.
There has been a threefold increase in the number of children investigated for involvement in terrorism in the last three years, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told parliament last week.
MPs heard that 162 people were referred to Prevent last year for concerns relating to school massacres.
“I think part of what this public inquiry needs to establish is when Prevent look at things, what they regard as terror, because my understanding of this case is because they didn’t think that the killer had an ideology that therefore he wasn’t a risk in the same way that somebody who might have an ideological motive might (be).
“But just because you don’t have an ideological motive doesn’t mean that you can’t be a mass killer and incredibly dangerous.”
Speaking on the same programme, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said Rudakubana should have been given a longer jail term.
He was unable to be given a full-life sentence because he was 17 when he carried out the murders.
Ms Badenoch told Sky News: “If he had done this 10 days later he would have been eligible for a whole-life sentence.
“What I want to make sure is victims don’t have to see their perpetrators after such serious and heinous crimes.”
Asked about the death penalty, she said: “I personally don’t think that would solve things… I don’t think that’s the way we should go.”
Those companies have got a moral responsibility to take that content down and make it harder for people to access it
Ms Reeves said it was wrong that Rudakubana was able to view harmful material online before the attack, which may have led to his fixation on violence.
She repeated comments made by her Cabinet colleague Ms Cooper, who last week told Parliament that companies should take down content immediately.
She had said: “We are urging the companies to take responsibility now and not continue to profit from really dangerous material that is putting kids at risk.”
Ms Reeves told Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One: “It is totally unacceptable the fact that the killer, before he went on to commit those horrific crimes, was able to access really easily on some of the online platforms, such hateful material and those companies have got a moral responsibility to take that content down and make it harder for people to access it.”
She said the Government would be introducing measures in the Online Safety Bill that would force companies to take similar material down.
However, she added: “There’s nothing stopping the companies taking down that material now.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, a supporter of Elon Musk, called on the X owner to take down any terrorist material that may be on his platform.
Asked whether Mr Musk should take down a video of a high-profile stabbing in Sydney that was watched by Rudakubana, Mr Farage told LBC: “If you tell me it’s still there.”
He was told the video was still available, and responded: “It should come down. Of course it should.”
It comes as people buying knives online will have to submit photo ID at the point of sale and again on delivery as part of stricter age verification checks to be introduced by the Government in the wake of the Southport attack.
Under the new two-step system, which will be mandated for all retailers selling blades online, buyers may need to submit an official document such as a passport or driving licence, as well as proof of address, before showing ID again on delivery.
The sale of knives with a fixed blade of more than three inches long to under-18s is illegal in England and Wales, with retailers facing fines or prosecution if they breach the law.
Current laws require sellers to operate an age verification system that is likely to prevent a person under 18 from buying a knife, but the legislation does not stipulate the elements of such systems.
