Ministers are planning a major overhaul to how knives are bought online after Southport triple killer Axel Rudakubana purchased weapons off Amazon before carrying out a sickening rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party.
Rudakubana, who on Monday pleaded guilty to the murder of of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, bought the kitchen knife used in the attack from Amazon when he was 17 despite having a conviction for violence.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the House of Commons yesterday that it was a ‘disgrace’ that Rudakubana was able to buy knives on Amazon – including two purchased a fortnight before the attack – so easily despite being under 18.
Rudakubana, who has since turned 18, has admitted carrying a knife more than 10 times.
Under plans being considered by the Home Office, buyers would need to submit an ID document to online retailers and record a live video or selfie to prove their age.
Currently, customers ordering knives on Amazon must enter their date of birth and are told that ‘proof of age and signature will be required on delivery’.
Stephen Clayman, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead for knife crime, is proposing stronger ID checks as part of a review of online knife sales being carried out on behalf of the Government.
Plans for a tougher crackdown are expected to be accelerated amid the fallout from the Southport attack last July.
Southport triple killer Axel Rudakubana (pictured) has admitted carrying a knife more than 10 times
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the House of Commons yesterday that it was a ‘disgrace’ that Rudakubana was able to buy knives on Amazon
It comes on top of a manifesto commitment to fine executives at tech companies which are failing to stop the sale of banned ninja swords, zombie-style knives and machetes.
As well as clamping down on knife sales, social media firms were also ordered to take down ‘dangerous’ online material blamed for fuelling Rudakubana’s obsession with violence.
Ms Cooper told the tech giants the Government would not tolerate them ‘profiting from hosting content that puts children’s lives at risk’.
The Home Secretary said an ‘online ecosystem’ was ‘radicalising our children while safety measures are whittled away’.
Sir Keir Starmer said the Southport murders were ‘not a one-off’ and that Britain faced a new threat of ‘extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms’.
Labour has also pledged to reduce knife crime by half in a decade. Writing for The Sun, Sir Keir said ‘it remains shockingly easy for our children to get their hands on deadly knives’.
‘The lessons of this case could not be clearer,’ he said.
‘Time and again as a child, the Southport murderer carried knives. Time and again, he showed clear intent to use them. And yet tragically, he was still able to order the murder weapon off the internet without any checks or barriers. A two-click killer. This cannot continue.
Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) said the Southport murders were ‘not a one-off’ and that Britain faced a new threat of ‘extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms’
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‘The technology is there to set up age-verification checks, even for kitchen knives ordered online. We must now use it to protect our children from future attack and I will ensure that this happens.’
When quizzed on how two types of ID could prevent people from freely buying weapons online, employment minister Alison McGovern told BBC Breakfast: ‘Knife crime is horrendous and we have got to have the new measures that you just mentioned, because we cannot have this flow of knives that can cause such absolute devastation.
‘We know that the technology is there to improve verification checks and I think that everyone would want that, every business, every organisation.
‘So, the Government will work with organisations to bring in every possible protection to stop knives getting into the wrong hands.’
She said the Government wants to work with retailers but that ‘in the end, we’ve got to have the right checks in place’ and ‘look at every measure that we can bring forward through legislation’.
Lord Carlile said a ‘failure to communicate’ enabled Rudakubana to carry out the murders after it was revealed he had been referred to safeguarding services, children social care and mental health services prior to the attack.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Lord Alex Carlile said: ‘This is not the first case where the failure to share information has caused very serious offences.
‘There have been many before, possibly because of a mistaken belief that it is not right in law to share information about someone who is very vulnerable.
‘That is completely wrong.
‘Information of this kind should always be shared and it should help to avoid incidents like this in the future.
‘We do need to be sure that where people are vulnerable, as this perpetrator certainly was, to becoming very dangerous, then there has to be full sharing of information.’
He also called for more regulation of social media companies to prevent potential perpetrators from ‘learning how to be a terrorist online’ in the wake of the Southport stabbing attack.
An aerial view of Rudakubana’s home on Old School Close in Banks, Lancashire, following his arrest
Police investigate on Hart Street in Southport on July 29 after the attacks at the dance class
Police officers outside the home of Rudakubana in Banks, Lancashire, on July 30, 2024
Sir Keir said it was a ‘devastating moment in our history’ and must be a ‘line in the sand’ for Britain, with ‘fundamental change’ in the way citizens are protected
The PM told a press conference in Downing Street that people were right to ‘demand answers’ over ‘failings’ in the case of Axel Rudakubana
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood (left) and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (right) were in No9 to watch the PM’s statement
Lord Carlile said: ‘It is absolutely clear that the online companies are not prepared to scrutinise the content of what is placed on their sites in a way that will ensure that our children and grandchildren do not see dreadful things online when they’re not mature enough to be able to exercise a critical faculty over them.
‘So, given that the internet companies are not prepared to do what they should voluntarily agree to carry out, it is time for a regulatory regime to be established which does not question the right of free speech, but which protects the public from unlawful acts.
‘If the internet companies are not prepared to do it, then the sanction is on governments – not just our government, but many other governments.
‘And as we saw in America earlier in the week, one can switch off the site – Tiktok was switched off for a day.
‘Also, they can be fined, fines based upon their world turnover, very big fines.
‘So, it is time that we looked at having a proper regulatory regime for our own country, doing what we have to do first, protecting our own country and our own citizens to ensure that people like this perpetrator are not able to learn how to be a terrorist online.’
Lord Carlile has backed calls for the Government to crackdown on online retailers selling knives to under-18s.
A spokesman for Amazon said: ‘We use trusted ID verification services to check name, date of birth and address details whenever an order is placed for these bladed items.
‘We have an age verification on delivery process that requires drivers to verify the recipient’s age through an app on their devices before handing over a parcel containing an age-restricted item.’
Sir Keir also confirmed that ministers are reviewing ‘the laws on what we can access online’, adding: ‘We still have rules in place in this country about what you can see at a cinema and yet online you can access no end of material.’
In an alarming revelation, Ms Cooper said that 162 people were referred to the anti-extremism Prevent programme last year after ‘expressing an interest in school massacres’.
She said she was ‘deeply disturbed’ that the number of under-18s investigated for involvement in terrorism had trebled in the past three years.
Rudakubana pleaded guilty on Monday to the murder of three girls during a 12-minute knife rampage in Southport last July.
Ministers have ordered a public inquiry into state failings in the case.
The killer was referred three times to the Prevent programme but was deemed not to be motivated by terrorist ideology on each occasion.
Ms Cooper told MPs that a review of his contact with the programme found he had ‘admitted to having carried a knife more than ten times, yet the action against him was far too weak’.
She said he was referred to Prevent repeatedly because he was ‘expressing interest in school shootings, the London Bridge attack, the IRA, MI5 and the Middle East’.
The review, conducted since the summer, has concluded that ‘too much weight was placed on the absence of ideology’ and that his case ‘should not have been closed’ by counter-terror police who were assessing whether he posed a threat.
Ms Cooper said ‘multiple’ public bodies had had contact with Rudakubana in his teenage years.
Lancashire Police visited his home five times in response to calls about his disturbing behaviour. He was also in contact with social services, mental health workers and the local youth offending team, as well as Prevent.
The Home Secretary said there were ‘so many signs of how dangerous he had become, yet the action against him was far too weak’.
There were up to 15 missed opportunities by government agencies to stop Rudakubana, The Times reported.
Sir Keir acknowledged that many would view the murders as a terrorist attack.
He said ministers were looking at whether to change the legal definition of terrorism to cover attacks which were designed to spread terror but which were not motivated by an obvious political ideology.
Rudakubana, who is due to be sentenced tomorrow, also admitted producing the deadly poison ricin and possessing an Al Qaeda training manual, both of which are terrorist offences.