‘Terrorism has changed’: Southport knife attack a sign the country faces a new threat, PM says
Sir Keir Starmer has said Britain faces a new threat and that terrorism has changed in light of the Southport attack last summer.
Speaking the day after Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana admitted murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, the prime minister said the incident “is a sign Britain now faces a new threat”.
“Terrorism has changed,” he told a news conference in Downing Street.
“In the past, the predominant threat was highly organised groups with clear political intent. Groups like Al-Qaeda. That threat, of course, remains.
“But now, alongside that, we also see acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, 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 seeming only for its own sake.”
On Monday, Rudakubana unexpectedly pleaded guilty to murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, on 29 July last year on what was due to be the first day of his trial.
After his guilty plea, it emerged Rudakubana was referred to the Prevent scheme three times in the 17 months before the attack over concerns about his fixation with violence, but on each occasion a judgement was made that he did not require intervention.
Sir Keir said those decisions were “clearly wrong” and “failed” the families of the victims.
When addressing the question of whether the attack was terrorism, the prime minister said the “blunt truth” was that Britain faces “a new threat” and that “terrorism has changed”.
“We also see acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, 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 seeming only for its own sake.”
The government will review the country’s “entire counter terrorism system”, the prime minister added.
Sir Keir said attackers are “becoming harder to spot” and the UK cannot have a system that fails to tackle people who are a danger to others.
“If the law needs to change to recognise this new and dangerous threat, then we will change it, and quickly.”
He says that children need to be protected from the “tidal wave” of violence available online.
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Southport murderer – what you need to know
Anyone referred to the Prevent scheme is assessed and if deemed a terrorism risk referred to another programme, Channel, although many referrals don’t result in any further police action.
Rudakubana admitted yesterday to 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a kitchen knife during the attack in the Merseyside town.
A week before the attack, Rudakubana, then 17, booked a taxi to take him to Range High School in Formby, but his father stopped him from leaving, it is understood.
The teenager, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, was expelled from the school in about 2019 over claims he was carrying a knife after telling Childline he was being racially bullied and brought the knife to protect himself.
It is understood that, after his exclusion, he returned to the school to target a former bully or someone he had a grievance with and assaulted someone with a hockey stick.
Rudakubana then attended two specialist schools, where teachers were concerned about his behaviour.
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After a summer dominated by criticism over the small boats crisis and asylum hotels, Labour says it’s planning to overhaul the “broken” asylum system.
As MPs return to Westminster today, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will speak about the government’s success in tackling people smugglers and plans for border security reform.
August saw the lowest number of Channel crossings since 2019 – but the last year has the most on record. Pic: Reuters
Labour hopes that the raft of changes being proposed will contribute to ending the use of asylum hotels, an issue which has led to widespread protests over the summer.
Ms Cooper will set out planned changes to the refugee family reunion process to give “greater fairness and balance”, and speak to the government’s promise to “smash the gangs” behind English Channel crossings.
National Crime Agency (NCA) figures show record levels of disruption of immigration crime networks in 2024/25. Officials believe this contributed to the lowest number of boats crossing the Channel in August since 2019.
But, despite the 3,567 arrivals in August being the lowest since 2021, when looking across the whole of 2025, the figure of 29,003 is the highest on record for this point in a year.
Read more:
The deep divides in town which has become a flashpoint in UK’s asylum crisis
PM vows small boat migrants will be ‘detained and sent back’
Where are the UK’s asylum seekers from?
Labour says actions to strengthen border security, increase returns and overhaul the asylum system, will result in “putting much stronger foundations in place so we can fix the chaos we inherited and end costly asylum hotels”.
In a message to Reform UK, which has promised mass deportations, and the Tories, who want to revive the Rwanda scheme, Ms Cooper will say: “These are complex challenges, and they require sustainable and workable solutions, not fantasy promises which can’t be delivered.”
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The town at boiling point over migration
While the home secretary will look back at the UK’s “proud record of giving sanctuary to those fleeing persecution”, she will argue the system “needs to be properly controlled and managed, so the rules are respected and enforced, and so governments, not criminal gangs, decide who comes to the UK”.
She will also give further details around measures announced over the summer, including the UK’s landmark returns deal with France, and update MPs on reforms to the asylum appeals process.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp dismissed Ms Cooper’s intervention as a “desperate distraction tactic”, reiterating record levels of illegal Channel crossings, the rise in the use of asylum hotels and the highest number of asylum claims in history in Labour’s first year.
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Richard Tice reveals how navy would deal with small boats
Sir Keir Starmer too, says he intends to “deliver change,” using a column in Monday’s Mirror to criticise the Tories and Reform UK for whipping up migrant hatred.
And the prime minister isn’t the only one to hit out at Reform UK’s flagship immigration plan, with the Archbishop of York accusing it of being an “isolationist, short-term kneejerk” approach, with no “long-term solutions”.
In response, Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips the archbishop was “wrong” in his criticism.
Anti-asylum demonstrators in Epping, Essex. Pic: PA
Mr Tice, who is the MP for Boston and Skegness, said he was a Christian who “enjoys” the church – but that the “role of the archbishop is not actually to interfere with international migration policies”.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal will hand down its full written judgment in the Bell Hotel case today, which saw Epping Forest District Council fail in an attempt to stop asylum seekers from being put up there.
Protests continued in Epping on Sunday night, with police arresting three people.
An anti-asylum demonstration also took place in Canary Wharf on Sunday, which saw a police officer punched in the face and in a separate incident, a child potentially affected by synthetic pepper spray.
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