The Prime Minister said "nothing will be off the table" in the inquiry into how the state failed to identify the risk posed by the Southport killer.
Addressing the nation, Sir Keir Starmer said the murders of three little girls by Axel Rudakubana must be “a line in the sand”.
The PM denied suggestions that the teenager’s terror links had been covered up, but said the case must “lead to a change” in the way terrorism is defined.
"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,” he said.
Rudakubana, who pleaded guilty on Monday to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July, was referred three times to anti-extremism programme Prevent amid concerns over his fixation with violence.
But despite this and contact with other state agencies, the authorities failed to stop the attack which claimed the lives of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.
Announcing the inquiry on Monday evening, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the country needed "independent answers" on Prevent and other agencies' contact with the "extremely violent" Rudakubana and "how he came to be so dangerous".
For the latest updates scroll down.
Prevent needs to be reformed, says Southport MP
10:31 , Matt WattsReacting to Southport's Labour MP Patrick Hurley said the "root causes" of the Southport murders need to be investigated, including the Prevent programme.
He said the scheme to prevent terrorism at early stages “certainly needs to be reformed and brought up to date.”
He said: "The threat from extremism is much more distributed and non-organisational... we have people actively self-radicalising online.
"I don’t think that Prevent specifically, but law enforcement and social services more generally, have yet got to grips that that’s the changing nature of the threats to the UK."
'Inquiry must urgently get answers', says Davey
09:27 , Rachael BurfordFollowing the Prime Minister’s address, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: "The Liberal Democrats welcome this inquiry, which must not shy away from asking tough questions about what went wrong.
"This was an utterly horrific tragedy. My thoughts go out to the bereaved families, who lost three young daughters to such brutal violence.
“We need to ensure that such a senseless attack cannot happen again.
"We must learn from these events, and the inquiry must urgently get us the answers we need to avoid future failures."
'Families need answers'
09:16 , Rachael BurfordAsked why a public inquiry is necessary, Sir Keir told journalists: "We need a public inquiry to answer all of the questions that the families, the people of Southport and the country have about this case, and to ensure that no stone is unturned, that every failure is exposed and dealt with.
"I also think we need an inquiry because we are dealing with a new cohort, a different threat, this individualised extreme violence, and we have to have the laws and framework in place to deal with it."
The Home Secretary yesterday announced a public inquiry into how the Southport child-killer Axel Rudakubana “came to be so dangerous” and why Prevent “failed to identify the terrible risk” he posed to others.
Trial could have collapsed
09:01 , Rachael BurfordAny trial could have collapsed if details about Rudakubana’s terror links were revealed before any court case, the PM says.
He is asked about why the government repeatedly denied the murders were terrorism when the killing sparked mass rioting over the summer.
Starmer says: “My concern in this case is that we have clearly got an example extreme violence, individualized violence that we have to protect our children from, and it is a new threat.
“It's not what we would have usually thought of as terrorism when definitions were drawn up, when guidelines were in place.”
He adds: “Of course I was kept up to date with the facts as they were emerging... But I had to observe the law of the land.
“It was not my personal decision to withhold this information... That is the law of the land that is in place for the reasons I set out.
“To protect the integrity of the system to ensure that the victims and their families get the justice that they deserve.”
State must show it can change
08:50 , Rachael BurfordAn “attitude of mistrust" will remain if the state does not show it can change, the PM says.
Starmer adds that his government will "leave no stone unturned" in its inquiry.
On anyone hindering the ability of the country to keep its citizens safe, the PM says: "I will find them and I will root them out."
Counter terrorism system to be reviewed
08:47 , Rachael BurfordThe government will review how its counter-terror system work after it was revealed Rudakubana was referred to Prevent three times before he went on his killing spree.
Work is already underway, the PM says.
But he adds that there are also other questions, such as how children are protected from the violence freely available online.
The material Rudakubana viewed should not be accessible "with just a few clicks", Starmer says.
"Britain faces a new threat", says PM
08:43 , Rachael BurfordThe terrorism threat has changed from organised groups, with “clear political intent” to “extreme violence perpetrated by lonely misfits”, says the PM.
“In the past the predominant threat was highly organized groups with clear political intent, groups like Al Qaeda, that threat of course remains,” Starmer says.
“But now alongside that, we also see acts of extreme violence perpetrated by lonely misfits, young men in their bedroom, accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety, sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, but fixated on that extreme violence.
“Now it may well be that people like this are harder to spot, and we can't shrug our shoulders and accept that.
“We can't have a national security system that fails to tackle people who are a danger to our values, our security, our children, we have to be ready to take on every threat.”
"A line in the sand"
08:37 , Rachael BurfordThe names of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe must not be associated with their “barbaric” killer, but “instead with a fundamental change in how Britain protects its citizens and its children”.
The PM adds that “we must ask and answer difficult questions, questions that should be far reaching, unburdened by cultural or institutional sensitivities and driven only by the pursuit of justice”.
"A devastating moment in our history"
08:33 , Rachael BurfordThe Prime Minister begins his address to the nation with a tribute to the three little girls murdered in Southport.
The killing were a "devastating moment in our history", he says.
Why are there coverup accusations?
08:29 , Rachael BurfordThe Prime Minister is expected to directly deny that his government covered up Rudakubana’s history before his court hearing.
As well as the murder and attempted murder charges, the teenager admitted being in possession of an Al Qaeda terror manual and production of ricin which police found at his family home.
Following his guilty plea it was revealed that Rudakubana had been referred to the government’s counter terror scheme three times between December 2019 and April 2021.
It was also reported that his father had stopped him from returning to his former school a week before he went on his killing spree in July last year.
Nigel Farage said the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper must appear in Parliament and account for why Rudakubana’s terror links were not revealed sooner.
The Reform UK leader was among the politicians critical of how the Government responded to the attack. More here.
Southport killer sentencing on Thursday
08:16 , Rachael BurfordAxel Rudakubana will be sentenced on Thursday for the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29.
The Southport killer pleaded guilty to all of the charges against him on Monday.
But the teenager is ineligible for a whole life sentence because he went on his killing spree when he was just 17-years-old.
Our courts correspondent Tristan Kirk explains more here.
Starmer expected in Downing Street at 8:30
08:08 , Rachael BurfordThe Prime Minister will begin his statement at 8.30am, followed by questions from the media.
He is expected to say that the government must now “ask, and answer difficult questions unburdened by cultural or institutional sensitivities and driven only by the pursuit of justice.”
He will add that the Southport incident must be associated with a “fundamental change” in how Britain protects its citizens.
