Politics latest: PM takes on claims of 'cover-up' in address to nation over Southport attack (2025)

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, yesterday accused the government of a "cover-up" after new details emerged about Southport killer Axel Rudakubana.

It comes after the 18-year-old pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls during the knife attack last summer.

The aftermath of the attack saw a litany of rumours and claims about the attacker spread online, perhaps most notably that he was an asylum seeker who had arrived via a small boat.

What followed was the worst rioting Britain had seen for years.

What did we learn on Monday?

Following Rudakubana's guilty plea, it emerged he was referred three times to the government's anti-terror programme, Prevent.

He also had contact with the police, the courts, the youth justice system, social services and mental health services.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said they "failed to identify the terrible risk and danger to others that he posed" and announced a public inquiry.

Why did this not come out before?

As is the case with any trial, authorities and the media have a duty not to publicise any information that could prejudice its outcome.

Ms Cooper said the Crown Prosecution Service made clear that the details couldn't be made public to avoid jeopardising proceedings, "in line with the normal rules of the British justice systems".

Now that the attacker's pleaded guilty, there's no need for a trial and sentencing will follow on Thursday.

Nick Price, director of legal services at the CPS, said that's when the "full details of this case" will be revealed.

"We recognise the profound interest in these proceedings, and it is important the prosecution case is presented to the court, so the facts can be determined which may inform the sentence handed down," he said.

What did the PM have to say?

In a news conference this morning, Sir Keir Starmer explained that although he knew details of the attacker as they were emerging, it "would not have been right to disclose" them.

"The only losers if the details had been disclosed would be the victims and the families because it runs the risk the trial would collapse," he said.

"I'm never going to do that because they deserve that justice."

He adds that it's not only a choice he made, it's also the "law of the land".

Our political correspondent Liz Bates said the PM was on "firm footing" given his legal background, and yet in an era of misinformation his explanation may not satisfy his critics.

So no 'cover-up'?

Indeed, the CPS, the PM, and the home secretary have all been adamant the government was "constrained" in what it could say until now.

But Ms Cooper has revealed the Home Office commissioned an urgent review into Prevent shortly after the attack.

More details about that will be published soon.

No timings have been given yet about the public inquiry.

An early morning news briefing from the prime minister has made it a busy start for the Politics Hub.

Here are the main things you need to know:

• Sir Keir Starmer has described last summer's Southport attack as a "devastating moment in our history";
• Speaking in Downing Street, an "angry" PM said a public inquiry into the murders will not allow any institutions to "deflect from their failure";
• It comes after killer Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls at a dance class in July 2024, and it emerged he was referred to the anti-terror programme Prevent three times;
• Sir Keir dismissed baseless accusations of a "cover-up" spread online by Nigel Farage and others, saying Britain's legal system prevented anyone from revealing details about Rudakubana's past;
• Our political correspondent Liz Bates said Sir Keir was on "firm footing" with his legal explanation, but it may still not be enough in an era where misinformation has gone mainstream.

For a full catch-up on the news conference, tap through the key points above and scroll back through our posts from 8.30am onwards.

We're expecting a Commons statement from the home secretary later this morning, reiterating much of what the prime minister said.

She may also have more details about the public inquiry.

We'll bring you any noteworthy updates when she appears.

The toxicity of online accusations of a cover-up was on full display in today's news conference as questions focused on the suggestion the prime minister "withheld information".

This is a long-established part of the UK's justice process and is designed to prevent a trial collapsing, and yet the idea that Sir Keir Starmer should have spoken out has taken hold.

His history as a lawyer and director of public prosecutions put him on a firm footing in defending the legalities of his response, but the barrage of questions suggests this could still damage his reputation amongst the public.

The prime minister has warned of a "new and different" form of terrorism emerging.

Sir Keir Starmer says the Southport attack was an "extreme violence clearly intended to terrorise" that doesn't necessarily fit within the framework of terrorism offences.

Answering a question from a Daily Mail reporter, he compares the attack to "some of the mass shootings in schools" in America.

"It is not an isolated ghastly example, it is in my view an example of a different kind of threat," he adds.

"That is my concern. That is my thinking that this is a new threat, individualised extreme violence, obsessive often following online material from all sorts of different sources.

"It is not a one-off. It is something that we all need to understand."

Next, Sir Keir Starmer is asked whether he regrets blaming the far-right for riots that erupted in the wake of the Southport attack last summer.

The prime minister says "responsibility for the violence lies with those who perpetrated it".

"I was in Southport the day after these terrible murders, I was acknowledging and thanking the front line police officers and ambulance who had been at the scene.

"You can imagine what they had been through. They were back at work the next day, they were saying it was just their job.

"I could see in their eyes what they had to deal with, what they had to see, how they endured that."

PM: You can't justify riots

He notes that as he arrived back in London, those same officers were putting their riot gear on and having bricks thrown at them.

"I don't think anybody can justify that - nor should they attempt to."

This is a surprisingly bold approach from the prime minister in response to the case of Axel Rudakubana.

In this speech, he takes head on a justice system that has been under pressure over the way it responded to the Southport stabbings.

At the centre is the promise of a wide-ranging inquiry, in which "nothing is off the table" and things will change, including, if necessary, the law.

It's all designed to take back the narrative, and to present himself not just as a dedicated upholder of the law but someone who is prepared to radically reform it too.

Our political editor Beth Rigby is next to put a question to the prime minister, asking him if it is true that he withheld information about the Southport case.

Sir Keir Starmer replies by saying that he knew details of the attacker, Axel Rudakubana, as they were emerging, but it "would not have been right to disclose" them.

"There has been a failure here, and I do not intend to let any institution of the state deflect from their failures," he says.

"The only losers if the details had been disclosed would be the victims and the families because it runs the risk the trial would collapse. I'm never going to do that because they deserve that justice."

He adds that it's not only a choice he made, it's also the "law of the land".

Sir Keir Starmer is now taking questions from the media.

He is asked if the government really needs a public inquiry to tell ministers that the system needs to change - and whether a delay could lead to other missed cases.

The prime minister says an inquiry is needed so that "all of the questions" that the country have about this case can be answered, and every failure can be dealt with.

He notes that we are dealing with a new type of threat, and "we have to have the laws and framework in place to deal with it".

But Sir Keir agrees "we shouldn't wait until the end of the inquiry before we start the change".

He says this is why there will be a review of what happened with the Southport attacker's Prevent referrals, "so that the mistakes made then will not be made today".

Following the Southport attack last year, riots and violence broke out in the area and across different parts of the country.

The prime minister says he was "profoundly moved" by communities coming together in the aftermath to "pick up the pieces of their lives".

"Even as that community faced an unimaginable evil, even as they had to endure mindless violence, bricks, and bottles thrown at their community, their businesses, their mosques, police offices attacked.... despite all that they chose to come together," Sir Keir Starmer says.

"They chose to pick up the pieces of their lives. They chose to rebuild brick by brick, side by side."

He adds that people need to follow their example in times of "darkness and tragedy".

"Wherever this inquiry goes, we will follow it, no matter the boats it will rock, no matter the vested interests it will threaten. We won't hide," he says, as he vows to make changes that the families of Southport deserve.

Sir Keir Starmer dismisses the idea that attacks of this nature are "all because of immigration or all because of funding cuts".

Instead, he says, "neither tells us anything like the full story or explains this case properly".

"No, this goes deeper," the prime minister explains.

"A growing sense that the rights and responsibilities that we owe to one another, the set of unwritten rules that hold a nation together, have in recent years been ripped apart.

"Children who've stopped going to school since the pandemic, young people who've opted out of work or education.

"More and more people retreating into parallel lives, whether through failures of integration or just a country slowly turning away from itself, wounds that politics for all that it may have contributed, must try to heal."

'Southport must be a line in the sand'

He also notes there are "questions about the accountability of the Whitehall and Westminster system".

Sir Keir says this system is "far too often driven by circling the institutional wagon, that does not react until justice is either hard won by campaigners, or until appalling tragedies like this finally spur a degree of action".

He adds: "Time and again we see this pattern and people are right to be angry about it. I'm angry about it.

"Southport must be a line in the sand, but nothing will be off the table in this inquiry. Nothing."

The prime minister insists it "will lead to change".