The heinous Southport stabbing last July by a wicked 18-year-old quite rightly rocked the country. Nothing is as evil as the mindless massacre of innocent children, but the relentless focus on knives being sold on Amazon to minors online, is not the key issue. Stronger laws around the purchasing of knives, particularly to minors, are obviously needed and while in Parliament I spent a great deal of time and energy strengthening the law to outlaw all forms of zombie knives. However, where and how a wicked murderer purchased his murder weapon is of precious little comfort to heart-broken families. Of far more concern is the fact that this man, like so many other lone wolf killers before him, was not only known to the authorities, he had already been referred to the Prevent counter-extremist programme multiple times.
The Prevent programme costs us tax-payers tens of millions of pounds a year yet is clearly failing? Apparently, no less then £200 million was spent on the programme between 2016 and 2021.
Equally alarming is the assertion by the Prime Minister earlier this week that singleton terrorist attacks are “a recent occurrence”. They are not. Such attacks have been going on for nearly a decade, many in London and, of course, the murder of MP, Sir David Amess in Leigh on Sea on the 15th October 2021 was just such a case. Recent research from the NottinghamTrent University suggests that there have been 44 lone wolf attacks in recent years and there have also been at least 4 other lone wolf attacks where the killer was already known to the Prevent programme. In 2020 Khairi Saadallah stabbed 3 friends in a park in Reading; in 2019 Sudesh Amman stabbed two people in Streatham and, in the same year, Usman Kahn stabbed two young graduates to death on London Bridge. In 2017 Ahmed Hassan injured 50 people in the Parsons Green bombing. So there are at least 5 other lone wolf attacks where the killer had previously been referred to the Prevent programme before these poor little girls were massacred
The aim of the Prevent programme is to try and pre-empt terrorist attacks by identifying those at risk of becoming terrorists, and in 2015 the “Prevent Duty” was introduced making it mandatory for public sector workers e.g. teachers, to refer students showing signs of extremism to the government’s deradicalization programme, known as Channel. Despite considerable concern from the further education sector that the Prevent Duty would risk driving radicalisation underground, this does not appear to be the case. In the year to March 2024 nearly 7,000 people were referred to the Prevent programme and a staggering 40%, nearly 3,000 of them, were children aged 11 to 15. How many of the 7,000 referrals would, without referral, have gone on to kill is impossible to say, but we do know for a fact that that multiple killers have been seen by the programme but have still gone on to slay innocent victims on our streets.
Last December my written request on behalf of the Amess family for an inquiry into the circumstances into how and why the Prevent programme failed Sir David Amess was summarily dismissed. According to the Security Minister, not only is the Prevent programme vital, it is continually being improved!
Now that we have had the appalling murders of three innocent little girls and attempted murders of others by an evil killer who also known to Prevent, straightaway there is to be a Public Inquiry.
Of course, I do not disagree with having an inquiry into the Southport stabbings and my heart goes out to those poor heartbroken families. This was a heinous crime but so too was the murder of Sir David Amess, a serving Member of Parliament.
Because the killers both pleaded guilty, the only way for the victims’ families to understand when and how their loved ones were comprehensively failed by the authorities is via a full public inquiry, but once again, why do we have a two tier system? Both have left behind grieving, heart-broken families and both have been equally failed by the Prevent Programme. Why is one family’s heartbreak being treated differently to another?
The public inquiry announced yesterday needs to be expanded to cover all families who have been the victim of lone wolf terror attacks where the perpetrator was known the authorities and/or the Prevent programme.
It is a fundamental tenet of our democracy that we are all equal under the law. All similarly affected families in the United Kingdom have an equal right to an enquiry. A former Director of Public Prosecutions must know this. The level of incompetence, sheer opportunism and obfuscation from the current Prime Minister is beyond belief.
