Southport MP calls for ‘tougher’ Axel Rudakubana sentence

The MP for Southport, where Axel Rudakubana murdered three young girls, has called for a review of the killer’s minimum 52-year jail term, arguing it is “not serious enough”.

Labour’s Patrick Hurley has asked the coroner to review whether the sentence was “unduly lenient”, claiming it does not “reflect the crimes committed”.

Rudakubana pleads guilty to Murders of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Seven, Bebe King, Six and Alice Da Silva Aguiar, Eight At a dance workshop.

The killings sparked a wave of political outrage, including from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who called the attack, which injured eight more children, “one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history”.

In a statement, Sir Keir said: “What happened in Southport was an atrocity and as the judge has said, this vulnerable offender will probably never be released.”

But Hurley argued that Rudakubana’s sentence “is not severe enough, it is not long enough for the crimes committed”.

The minimum 52-year sentence means Rudakubana cannot be considered for release until he has spent that amount of time in prison.

But because he acted nine days shy of turning 18, by law he cannot be sentenced to a lifetime order – which would mean he could never be released from prison.

Hurley told BBC Breakfast in “extraordinary circumstances” judges needed to hand down “extraordinary sentences”.

He also raised concerns that the surviving victims could be “retraumatised” if Rudakubana applied for parole after serving 52 years in prison, although this was rejected.

Minister John Healey said international law prevented Britain from having a justice system that imposed unlimited sentences on under-18s.

However, he told BBC Breakfast: “I can’t see this man ever getting out of prison.

“I don’t want to see this man ever get out of prison and the judge yesterday when he sentenced him to 52 years was also quite clear – he doesn’t expect him to get out of prison in the future.”

Advocate General Lord Hermer and Advocate General Lucy Rigby now has 28 days to decide If they want to refer the judgment to the Court of Appeal.

Critics of the judge’s decision would have to convince the appeals court that the sentence – believed to be the second-longest minimum term ever – is not only shorter than they would have liked, but “unnecessarily”.

Former Attorney General Sir Dominic Grieve said he believed the request was “hopeless” as “the chances are Rudakubana will never be released”.

He told the BBC there had to be “a cut-off point” for when a whole-life order could be imposed and there was evidence that younger offenders could change in a way that adults did not.

Hurley joined Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch in calling for the law to be changed to allow whole life orders to be imposed on people under 18 in some cases.

Badenoch said “Rudakubana should never be released from prison” after destroying “countless lives” and leaving a “legacy of distrust” across the country.

The Conservatives “will start exploring” how to change the law, she said.

Despite the severity of the attack, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided that it did not meet the legal definition of terrorism due to a lack of evidence that Rudakubana was trying to advance any political, religious or ideological agenda.

But Badenoch called the attack a “terrorist” incident and urged others to stop “avoiding these hard truths”.

Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage demanded the resignation of the CPS chief for not classifying the case as terrorism.

“This barbaric and senseless attack was clearly both political and ideological,” Farage said.

“The British public must 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-terrorist incident and maintained that position.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned Rudakubana’s attack as “appalling, cowardly and evil” and said the government had promised a national inquiry.

Further details would be released soon, she said, but added “for today, all our thoughts are with the families enduring this unimaginable pain and the example of strength and courage they have given us all”.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp backed the inquiry but accused the government of overseeing an information vacuum following Rudakubana’s arrest, which Sparked a wave of riots across Britain last summer.

Philp is one of many critics who have accused the CPS and the government of withholding key information after the attacksuch as Rudakubana’s three references to the anti-extremism programme, preventing his creation of enough Ricin to kill 12,000 people and the extent of his fixation on violence and genocide.

Posting on social media, Philp said: “The Prime Minister and the CPS could have been more open with the public. This would have avoided misinformation filling the void and fueling the riots.

“The inquiry must also address this issue.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey backed the inquiry and called on the government to meet its “urgent duty to the families and our country to learn the lessons of what happened”.

In response to the attack, two reformist British MPs, Rupert Lowe and Lee Anderson, called for the return of the death penalty.

Mr. Lowe said it was “time for a national debate” on the use of the death penalty “in exceptional circumstances”, while Mr. Anderson posted a photo of a noise on his X account with the caption: “No excuses here. This is what’s required!”