Plans to tackle violence after Southport attack shelved due to costs, inquiry told

Ambitious responses to tackling extreme violence in the wake of the Southport attack were not taken forward by the Home Office because of cost, a public inquiry has heard.

The Southport Inquiry, set up after three girls were murdered at a dance class in July 2024, is hearing evidence on how the risk from "violent-fixated individuals" can be managed.

The hearing was told a Home Office unit had identified key issues with the challenge of non-ideological extreme violence (NIEV) ahead of a meeting with the cabinet secretary in June last year.

Four "high ambition responses" to the issues were set out by the Home Office but the inquiry heard all of these would require more money to be delivered.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were killed by then 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class, while 23 other children suffered physical or psychological injuries.

The issues, set out in a report, included that there was limited evidence on the scale and scope of the problem of NIEV; that multi-agency frameworks were not adequate for managing cases; there was uncertainty about effective interventions and there was no clear ownership across law enforcement.

The unit also reported that the online environment was "increasingly acting as an accelerant and enabler of NIEV".

Jonathan Emmett, from the Home Office, told the inquiry: "The intent behind putting any note of that type together, and that note specifically, is absolutely to get at the strategic issues and not to shy away from them in any sense."

The Home Office's four "high ambition responses" to the issues included proposing a "serious and sustained effort" to reduce the risk in the online environment.

Prevention partnerships to reduce the pool of extreme violence risk were also listed, along with a national prevention gateway backed by effective multi-agency systems, and strengthening the anti-terror programme Prevent to handle the "sustained surge and broader range of referrals".

Details of what the responses would involve were redacted in the copy of the report shown to the inquiry.

The inquiry was told the Home Office, in anticipation of a multi-year spending review in June 2025, recognised that work would instead need to focus on "cost-neutral improvements" in the short term.

Counsel to the inquiry Nicholas Moss KC said: "It does seem on the face of the record that what were described as 'high ambition responses' were deliberately not taken forward at this time because of the limitations of funding in the then cycle of the spending review?

Emmett replied: "Yes, that's correct."

Moss KC quoted former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer's statement following the conviction of Axel Rudakubana for carrying out the attack, in which Sir Keir said there were questions about the accountability of the Whitehall and Westminster system and that: "Southport must be a line in the sand."

Moss KC said: "It might be said by some outside observers that sentiment doesn't sit entirely comfortably with an acceptance that the spending review meant that high ambition responses would need to be, at least for the moment, put on hold?"

Emmett said part of the context for the decision-making was that it was understood the inquiry would be making its own strategic recommendations in due course.