Reform MPs call for death penalty debate and CPS chief to be sacked after Southport killer jailed for 52 years

23 January 2025, 20:45

Reform MPs have called for a debate on the death penalty after Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was sentenced to 52 years in jail, with Farage calling for the head of the CPS to resign.

MPs from Reform UK have called for a debate on the death penalty for criminals like Rudakubana following the killer’s sentencing hearing.

Meanwhile, leader of the party Nigel Farage has called for the Director of Public Prosecutions to resign over the sentence.

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced to 52 years in jail for the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.

Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform, told LBC’s Tom Swarbrick that there should be a debate on the death penalty in cases like Rudakubanu’s.

Tice said: “I don't think we should be afraid of having a national debate on important big issues like this. I think that many people in the country would like at least a debate.

“People come to obviously very personal matters of conscience as to which way they would go. Clearly this is probably the most exceptional that anybody can recall that I can think of.

“Let's hope there isn't a more exceptional. And let's hope we never live out through anything as horrific as this.”

Lee Anderson, chief whip of Reform UK, posted a picture of a noose on social media, saying: “No apologies here. This is what’s required!”

Read more: Southport murder victims parents speak of 'lifetime of grief' after an act of 'pure evil'

Read more: Southport attacker 'targeted us because we were vulnerable and easy prey,' admits dance teacher Leanne Lucas

Rupert Lowe MP also posted about Rudakubana’s sentence on X, saying: “It is my opinion that now is the time for a national debate on the use of the death penalty in exceptional circumstances.

“This is an exceptional circumstance.”

Meanwhile, party leader Nigel Farage said it was ‘incomprehensible’ that the case was treated as a non terror incident, claiming the attack was ‘clearly both political and ideological’.

He called for the Director of Public Prosecutions at the Crown Prosecution Service, Stephen Parkinson, to resign over the sentence.

Farage said: “Many crimes of much less severity have been declared as terrorism within 24 hours of the incident taking place.

“The British public needs to have confidence in the CPS and our police forces. Tens of millions of British citizens will find it incomprehensible how the CPS decided this was a non terror incident and maintained that position.”

Dominic Grieve KC, former Attorney General and Conservative MP, told LBC's Iain Dale that Reform MPs might have 'ulterior motives' in calling for the death penalty.

Iain Dale asked Grieve if the calls were 'a backdoor way of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights', which prohibits the death penalty.

The former Attorney General said: "That might well be an ulterior motive. I mean, I'm afraid, I felt during the passage of this terrible episode that quite a few people have had ulterior motives.

"And there's been vicious criticism of the government for concealing the truth when the government is bound by the rule of law, as is everybody else.

"The reason why the full facts couldn't come out until this trial is because to have a fair trial in this country, it is up to the trial judge to decide what evidence is admitted and what isn't."

Under UK law, a terrorist attack must be motivated by the advancement of a religious, political or ideological cause - even if the suspect possessed terrorist material.

Rudakubana was referred to the government's counter-terrorism Prevent programme three times before the incident due to his general "obsession with violence".

Prevent assessed his behaviour as potentially concerning but he was deemed not to be motivated by a terrorist ideology or pose a terrorist danger and was therefore not considered suitable for the counter-radicalisation scheme.

The detective that led the investigation into the killings reportedly said he would have been ‘happy’ if the crime was classed as a terrorist attack, as it would have given officers longer to question Rudakubana.

Axel Rudakubana sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in prison | LBC reaction

He said: “We’ve told the families this when it’s like … are we hiding it? Why would you not want to call it a terrorist attack? All day long I’d have been happy for someone to say it’s a terrorist attack … It was assessed on an almost daily basis: is this terrorism?”

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said there would be a review into UK terror laws, warning of a new breed of terrorist that isn’t necessarily motivated by ideology.

Britain faces a new threat of terrorism from "extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms," Starmer said.

He said that the violence seen in the Southport attack was a new form of terrorism committed by ‘loners and misfits’ who were "sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, but fixated on ‘extreme violence… for its own sake."

Sir Keir continued: "I do think it's new. You've seen versions of it in America with some of the mass shootings in schools.

"But that is my concern, that is my thinking that this is a new threat - individualised extreme violence, obsessive, often following online viewing of material from all sorts of different sources."

The Home Secretary has announced that there will be a public inquiry into how Southport child-killer Axel Rudakubana "came to be so dangerous" and why Prevent "failed to identify the terrible risk" he posed to others.