Rachel Reeves says ‘no stone should be left unturned’ in Southport inquiry
Rachel Reeves has said “no stone should be left unturned” in the Southport inquiry to stop anything so “appalling” happening again.
The chancellor told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips the inquiry announced this week into how Axel Rudakubana was able to murder three little girls and injure 10 others last summer was “essential”.
“It is absolutely essential we learn lessons, not just to provide understanding for the families but to stop anything like this happening ever again,” she said.
“No stone should be left unturned.”
Rudakubana was jailed for life with a minimum of 52 years on Thursday after unexpectedly pleading guilty on what was meant to be the first day of his trial.
He had been referred to the Prevent anti-terror programme three times, admitted to carrying a knife into school multiple times and attacked a boy at school with a hockey stick.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King were murdered in the attack
Ms Reeves added: “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, that the man was referred three times to Prevent, he had 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.”
She said she thinks the inquiry needs to establish what Prevent regards as terror because Rudakubana had no apparent ideology, which is why he was taken off Prevent’s list.
“Just because you don’t have an ideological motive doesn’t mean that you can’t be a mass killer and incredibly dangerous,” the chancellor added.
Read more:
The 14 minutes of terror that left three children dead
Axel Rudakubana. Pic: Merseyside police
Ms Reeves defended Sir Keir Starmer and other ministers for not revealing Rudakubana’s past last summer when the attack happened.
“I think it’s really important that when a government speaks, when ministers speak about something before there’s been a trial, that people are very careful about the words that they use,” she said.
“Because if a government of any colour added anything to prejudice a trial, then that minister would never be forgiven. And so ministers do have to use words with caution.”
A growing rift has emerged in Washington, D.C., between the cryptocurrency industry and labor unions as lawmakers debate whether to ease rules allowing cryptocurrencies in 401(k) retirement accounts.
The dispute centers on proposed market structure legislation that would allow retirement accounts to gain exposure to crypto, a move labor groups say could expose workers to speculative risk. In a letter sent on Wednesday to the US Senate Banking Committee, the American Federation of Teachers argued that cryptocurrencies are too volatile for pension and retirement savings, warning that workers could face significant losses.
The letter drew immediate pushback from crypto investors and industry figures. “The American Federation of Teachers has somehow developed the most logically incoherent, least educated take one could possibly author on the matter of crypto market structure regulation,” a crypto investor said on X.
In response to the letter, Castle Island Ventures partner Sean Judge said the bill would improve oversight and reduce systemic risk, while enabling pension funds to access an asset class that has delivered strong long-term returns.
Consensys attorney Bill Hughes said the AFT’s opposition to the crypto market structure bill was politically motivated, accusing the group of acting as an extension of Democratic lawmakers.
Related: Atkins says SEC has ‘enough authority’ to drive crypto rules forward in 2026
Opposition to crypto in retirement and pension funds mounts
Proponents of allowing crypto in retirement portfolios, on the other hand, argue that it democratizes finance, while trade unions have voiced strong opposition to relaxing current regulations, claiming that crypto is too risky for traditional retirement plans.
“Unregulated, risky currencies and investments are not where we should put pensions and retirement savings. The wild, wild west is not what we need, whether it’s crypto, AI, or social media,” AFT president Randi Weingarten said on Thursday.
The AFT represents 1.8 million teachers and educational professionals in the US and is one of the largest teachers’ unions in the country.
According to Better Markets, a nonprofit and nonpartisan advocacy organization, cryptocurrencies are too volatile for traditional retirement portfolios, and their high volatility can create time-horizon mismatches for pension investors seeking a predictable, low-volatility retirement plan.
In October, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) also wrote to Congress opposing provisions within the crypto market structure regulatory bill.
The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of trade unions in the US, wrote that cryptocurrencies are volatile and pose a systemic risk to pension funds and the broader financial system.
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