Starmer plans to redefine terror despite fears police will be ‘overwhelmed’

Sir Keir Starmer
In Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer warned of a law change to identify individuals planning lone attacks - Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty

Sir Keir Starmer has announced plans to redefine terror in the wake of the Southport murders amid fears that it could overwhelm police and security services.

The Prime Minister said Britain faced a new threat of terrorism from attackers radicalised by extreme violence but without any fixed ideology.

In a televised press conference in Downing Street, he said ministers would change the law if necessary to ensure the state could identify violent individuals who may be planning attacks on their own.

Former counter-terror chiefs expressed concern that police and the security services could be overwhelmed without extra resources if the definition was expanded to include lone wolf attackers lacking a clear ideology.

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“There is no new terrorism threat and no need to introduce new law. Violence without ideology is just violence and there is plenty of UK law to deal with it,” said a former counter-terror chief.

“If the definition was expanded, it would have significant resource implications for counter-terrorism and the intelligence services.”

There were also concerns that other security and terror risks could have to be “deprioritised” if no more resources were allocated to counter-terrorism operations.

Philip Ingram, a former intelligence officer, said it would be difficult for security services to monitor extra terror threats.

“There are not enough resources in MI5 and counter-terror police to deal with the huge number of terrorists at the moment and guarantee that none of them are going to carry out an attack,” he said.

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Neil Basu, the Met’s former counter-terrorism chief, said it would be a mistake to give the label terrorism to acts that were not terrorist.

Axel Rudakubana
Axel Rudakubana, 18, was referred to the counter-terrorism programme three times when he was 13 and 14 - Elizabeth Cook/PA

He said criminals like the Southport attacker were “pathetic, vulnerable, criminal losers. They are not terrorists”.

He told LBC that the UK already had “incredibly strong terrorist legislation”, adding: “If we start naming these people terrorists, you will probably give them exactly what they’re looking for, which is their day of fame, their day of infamy. You will, in my view, inspire more of these acts.”

Axel Rudakubana, who murdered three girls at their dance class in Southport in July, had been referred to the Government’s counter-terrorism Prevent programme three times between December 2019 and April 2021 when he was aged 13 and 14, but each time it was decided it was inappropriate for him to join.

Yvette Cooper
Yvette Cooper announces the Southport murders public inquiry - House of Commons/Reuters

However, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, told MPs that a review had concluded the referrals had been wrongly closed because “too much weight” had been put on the fact that he did not have “ideology”.

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Rudakubana’s murders have also not been classed as a terrorist incident even though he had downloaded an academic study of an al-Qaeda terror manual and had produced the toxin ricin, a poison favoured by terrorists.

Sir Keir said the new threat was characterised by “extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms”.

“My concern in this case is we have clearly got an example of extreme violence, individualised violence, that we have to protect our children from and our citizens from,” he said.

“It is a new threat, it’s not what we would have usually thought of as terrorism when definitions were drawn up, when guidelines were put in place, when the framework was put in place and we have to recognise that here today.”

A former counter-terror chief was, however, sceptical.

Floral tributes in Southport
Floral tributes in Southport to the three girls killed by ‘line wolf’ Axel Rudakubana - Owen Humphreys/PA

“We still do not know the ideology that drove the Southport killer but it is highly likely to be Islamist at source, especially taking account of the venue and other factors,” they said.

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“The attack was likely ‘inspired’ therefore. No one murders three little girls in these circumstances just because they like violence unless mentally ill. The look at definitions is a smokescreen.”

Alicia Kearns, shadow security minister, said: “This is not a new threat. Individuals attaching themselves to incel, Islamist or Right-wing terrorist ideologies or often an incoherent mess of many to justify their actions, is nothing new.

“Caution is needed when expanding the requirement put on our security services who already prevent many attacks each month without needing knee-jerk additional burdens.”

Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorism, has been asked by Ms Cooper to decide whether there should be changes to terrorism laws to take account of perpetrators who “seek to terrorise even without a clear ideology”.

She has also appointed Lord David Anderson KC, as Prevent commissioner to review whether any previous similar cases have been missed and whether rules needed to be changed to take account of threats from violent individuals like Rudakubana.

He said the Southport attack must be a “line in the sand for Britain”, pledging that the public inquiry would leave “no stone unturned” in getting to the truth of how the girls were failed by the state.

“Nothing will be off the table,” he said. “As part of the inquiry launched by the Home Secretary yesterday, I will not let any institution of the state deflect from their failure, failure which in this case, frankly, leaps off the page,” he added.