But the knife attack has not been treated as terrorism by police or prosecutors, and the judge stressed that he "must accept" that there was no evidence of terrorist cause.He added, however, that Rudakubana's culpability is "equivalent to terrorist matters,

Axel Rudakubana has been sentenced to a minimum 52 years in jail for the killing of three young girls in Southport in a stabbing attack in 2024. After Rudakubana pleaded guilty to the murders, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a public inquiry, saying the state “failed in its duty” to protect the girls.

After a teenager admitted murdering three girls at a dance class, Keir Starmer said people were being radicalized into violence for its own sake and terrorism laws might need to change.

Sir Keir Starmer said the UK faces a new threat from loners radicalised by viewing extreme violent content online.

Sir Keir said it was "clearly wrong" Rudakubana was deemed not to meet the threshold for intervention from the Prevent programme, and the Southport victims' families had been failed. The prime minister said the Southport attack "must be a line in the sand" and "nothing will be off the table" in the public inquiry.