Both of the Conservative leadership candidates have come under fire for questioning the police and government’s response to the Southport attack, which caused the death of three young girls. Robert Jenrick suggested that there had been a concealment of information, while rival Kemi Badenoch argued that questions remain unanswered. 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana, accused of murdering the youngsters, faces two additional charges, one of which falls under the Terrorism Act.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, warned MPs that their role was to either support or undermine the work of police in the case. He made the comments during his regular weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons. Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Toce called for the police to be more transparent about their investigations in a separate question to Starmer.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, who leads Reform UK, has been criticised for questioning the police’s evaluation of the attacks. Following the recent news about the additional charges, he released a video indicating that he could have been right all along. While the Counter Terrorism Police is currently not treating the Southport killings as a terrorist event, Axel Rudakubana faces additional charges under terrorism legislation apart from the murders.
Rudakubana, who appeared in court on Wednesday, has set a provisional trial date for January. In response to the new charges, Jenrick told ITV News that the government wanted to know when the Prime Minister first became aware of the update. Badenoch, on the other hand, suggested that police, Crown Prosecution Service, and Starmer himself had serious questions to answer. The Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, warned MPs of the threat of significantly influencing criminal proceedings by discussing the investigation in the Commons during PMQs beforehand.
The Southport case has generated a lot of attention from the media, leading people to become angry and violent. The day following the attack, thousands attended a peaceful vigil in the town, whereas a separate protest became violent outside a mosque. This sparked protests in other towns and cities that led to violence and rioting, particularly against asylum center hotels. Over 1,000 arrests have been made, and hundreds of people have been charged and sentenced to prison time.
Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, urged the UK government and police to be more transparent about criminal cases following the events surrounding the Southport case. In the aftermath of the row, he reminded the government that if there is an information gap, other voices will attempt to fill it, particularly on social media sites
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