Kemi Badenoch has blamed a lack of ‘integration’ in the UK for the horrific crimes of Southport child-killer Axel Rudakubana.
The Conservative Party leader used media interviews today to demand the UK have a ‘dominant’ culture, after Rudakubana was jailed for 52 years for killing three young girls at a Taylor Swift dance class.
The mass slaughter in which the teenager – aged just 17 at the time – tried to kill eight other children and two adults has not been treated as an act of terrorism, as detectives could find no ideology behind his terrible crimes.
Rudakubana was born in Wales to parents who are Rwandan Christians.
But speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the Tory leader suggested there might have been a religious motivation for his actions.
‘There are a lot of people like Rudakubana who, despite being here from childhood or born here, they are not integrating into the rest of society, they hate their country,’ she said.
‘They are being told that everything about the UK is terrible, he had materials about white genocide and so on.
‘If you are being inculpated in hate, you are not integrating well, and there is so much we can do across the board and not just on religious extremism, extremism across the board.’
However, she was unable to provide any evidence for her assertion that a lack of integration played a role in the crime, other than ‘my personal experience’.
The Conservative Party leader used media interviews today to demand the UK have a ‘dominant’ culture, after Rudakubana was jailed for 52 years for killing three young girls at a Taylor Swift dance class.
The mass slaughter in which the teenager – aged just 17 at the time – tried to kill eight other children and two adults has not been treated as an act of terrorism, as detectives could find no ideology behind his terrible crimes.
Rachel Reeves said it was important ministers ‘take advice’ from the Crown Prosecution Service and from the police in what they say during a criminal investigation.
Ms Badenoch also said Rudakubana should have been given a longer sentence, but drew short of calling for a return of the death penalty.
She told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: ‘If he had done this ten days later he would have been eligible for a whole life sentence.
‘What I want to make sure is victims don’t have to see their perpetrators after such serious and heinous crimes.’
Asked about the death penalty, she said: ‘I personally don’t think that would solve things… I don’t think that’s the way we should go.’
The 18-year-old was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 52 years on Thursday – one of the highest minimum terms on record – for murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a dance class in Southport on July 29 last year.
He also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has already announced that a public inquiry will be held to look at any ‘missed opportunities’ to identify Rudakubana’s murderous intent and ordered a ‘thorough review’ of the Prevent referrals.
Writing in the Sunday Times, she said a review of referral thresholds to Prevent was under way.
This will look in particular at individuals ‘obsessed with school massacres’ and also ‘Islamist extremism’, she said.
‘Where individuals are suspected to be neurodiverse, interventions should not stop because they are awaiting assessments, ignoring any risks they might pose,’ she added.
Rudakubana was diagnosed by local health authorities with an autism spectrum disorder.
Rachel Reeves said it was important ministers ‘take advice’ from the Crown Prosecution Service and from the police in what they say during a criminal investigation.
It was put to her that the independent reviewer of terror laws, Jonathan Hall KC, had said the Government and authorities should be more open about criminal cases to avoid an information vacuum being filled online.
She told Sky News: ‘I think it’s really important that ministers take advice from the Crown Prosecution Service and from police and don’t say anything to prejudice an inquiry. That’s incredibly important.
‘The killer will now spend the rest of his life in prison, and it is really important that ministers didn’t do anything ahead of that trial that could have prejudiced it in any way at all.’