Remove harmful online content now, says MP

Southport's MP Patrick Hurley has urged online platforms to remove harmful online content immediately in the wake of the knife attack carried out last year in the town.

Axel Rudakubana was jailed for a minimum of 52 years for the murders of three young girls and the attempted murders of 10 other people, including eight children.

He was found to have watched graphic footage of a knife attack in Australia and had also downloaded an al-Qaeda training manual from the internet.

Hurley said the removal of harmful content "needs to happen now" and online platforms should not wait until the Online Safety Act comes into force in March.

The act requires social media platforms to take "proportionate measures" to protect users from illegal content.

But the government said there was "no justification for waiting for laws to kick in" and wants platforms to act now.

A letter sent to technology companies by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said access to harmful content was "unacceptable" and firms had a "moral responsibility to act".

Hurley said: "We need to put as many barriers in place as possible to make sure that that person who is thinking of some similar atrocity doesn't... become radicalised to the same extent."

Rudakubana, now 18, was 17 when he carried out the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop on 29 July.

At Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday he was convicted of three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder, one of producing the biological toxin ricin and one of possessing an Al Qaeda training manual, an offence under the Terrorism Act.

Young girls Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were murdered in the attack.

Ten other people including dance class leader Leanne Lucas and businessman Jonathan Hayes were also seriously wounded.

The government has announced a public inquiry will take place to look at failures to identify the risk posed by Rudakubana, of Old School Close in Banks, West Lancashire.

He had been referred to the Prevent programme on three occasions between 2019 and 2021.

Hurley called for this inquiry to be "speedy", with interim recommendations where appropriate to ensure "we don't let this drag on into the long grass".

He said the families "need to know the answers and they need to have justice".

"But we need to get to the bottom of what the state was doing wrong and what the government did wrong, to ensure there are no repeat attacks," he said.

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust confirmed Rudakubana had been under its care between 2019 and 2023.

A trust spokesperson said it welcomed the independent public inquiry announced on Monday.

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