Reeves urges platforms to remove violent content viewed by Southport killer

Online platforms indispensable enactment present to region convulsive contented viewed by the Southport slayer to forestall further attacks, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has told the BBC.

Her comments connected Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg travel aft the location caput wrote to X, Meta, TikTok, Google and YouTube saying the easiness of entree to convulsive worldly was unacceptable.

The 18-year-old was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years successful jail past week for murdering 3 young girls and attempting to execution 10 different people, including 8 children.

Conservative person Kemi Badenoch told the aforesaid programme that she believed that a deficiency of integration into nine had played a relation successful the crimes committed by Rudakubana.

The authorities has announced a nationalist enquiry volition instrumentality spot into the missed opportunities to halt him.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and six-year-old Bebe King were killed successful the onslaught astatine a Taylor Swift-themed creation and yoga store during their summertime holidays.

Their murderer had been known to police, anti-extremism authorities and different nationalist agencies.

There had lone been constricted involution and the authorities has said determination were missed opportunities, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer saying the authorities had failed.

Searches of the killer's location uncovered worldly which suggested an obsession with violence, including the world survey of an al-Qaeda grooming manual downloaded from the internet.

Reeves told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: "It is wholly unacceptable the information that the killer, earlier helium went connected to perpetrate those horrific crimes, was capable to entree - truly easy - connected immoderate of the online platforms specified hateful material," she said.

"Those companies person got a motivation work to instrumentality that contented down and marque it harder for radical to entree it.

"Already successful immoderate countries astir the satellite including Australia, the companies person taken it down. So they tin bash that."

In the location secretary's letter, co-written with Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that, portion possession of the al-Qaeda papers was amerciable nether existing anti-terror laws, Rudakubana had been "able to easy get access" to it.

Before leaving location to transportation retired the attack, helium besides watched graphic footage of a weapon onslaught connected Australian bishop Mari Emmanuel that had taken spot a fewer months earlier.

Cooper noted the video of the onslaught had been removed successful Australia but could inactive beryllium accessed successful the UK, adding the Southport onslaught had "laid bare the imaginable consequences of failing to enactment connected specified content".

Reeves said the government's online information bill, which becomes instrumentality successful March, tin bid the removal of convulsive and hateful material.

"Let's not hold until past - we don't request authorities to halt this from happening. These companies can, and they should, instrumentality that worldly down now," she said.

She said her "heart goes out" to the families who mislaid their daughters, on with the children who "will everlastingly retrieve the scenes they saw unfold".

The chancellor added that lessons needed to beryllium learned connected what incorrect and wherefore specified an "evil man" was not dealt with sooner.

The authorities besides said connected Sunday that stricter property checks connected the merchantability of knives online would beryllium introduced.

People volition person to taxable photograph ID erstwhile they bid an point and again erstwhile it is delivered, and it volition beryllium amerciable to permission a bundle containing a weapon connected a doorstep if nary 1 is successful to cod it.

Starmer promised urgent action connected the merchantability of knives to under-18s aft the attack, saying it was "shockingly easy" to bargain them. Rudakubana had bought the weapon utilized successful the onslaught connected Amazon.

Badenoch told Laura Kuenssberg that determination are "a batch of people" similar Rudakubana who "despite being present from puerility oregon calved here, they're not integrating into the remainder of society".

"They hatred their country," she said. "And they are being told that everything astir the UK is terrible.

"He had materials astir achromatic genocide.

"If you are being inculcated successful hate, you are not integrating well. And determination is truthful overmuch that we tin bash crossed the board. Not conscionable connected spiritual extremism but besides conscionable extremism crossed the board."

Pressed by Laura Kuenssberg connected what grounds determination was that the crimes were linked to integration, arsenic the slayer had been calved successful the UK, Badenoch said it was "one of the elements". She said the grounds was her ain acquisition with a akin inheritance to Rudakubana arsenic an African Christian.

Badenoch added that "the effort we marque to marque radical consciousness a portion of the full is precise constricted and it shouldn't conscionable beryllium government, it should beryllium the full of society", with excessively galore groups becoming insular and segregated.

She said the incidental had affected her "really deeply" arsenic her 2 daughters besides emotion Taylor Swift. "When it happened, I could conscionable ideate it being them," she said.