Rachel Reeves says 'no stone should be left unturned' in Southport inquiry

Rachel Reeves has said "no stone should be left unturned" in the Southport inquiry to stop anything so "appalling" happening again.

The chancellor told Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips the inquiry announced this week into how Axel Rudakubana was able to murder three young girls and injure 10 others last summer was "essential".

"It is absolutely essential we learn lessons, not just to provide understanding for the families but to stop anything like this happening ever again," she said.

"No stone should be left unturned."

Rudakubana was jailed for life with a minimum of 52 years on Thursday after unexpectedly pleading guilty to murder on what was meant to be the first day of his trial.

He had been referred to the Prevent anti-terror programme three times, admitted to carrying a knife into school multiple times and attacked a boy at school with a hockey stick.

Ms Reeves added: "It's appalling what happened in Southport and the evil, cowardly acts of that man.

"The impact will be felt forever by those families. And it's right that there's now a public inquiry to establish what on earth went wrong, that the man was referred three times to Prevent, he had been found carrying a knife on multiple occasions and he'd attacked a boy he was at school with.

"And yet he was able to slip through the system."

She said she thinks the inquiry needs to establish what Prevent regards as terror because Rudakubana had no apparent ideology, which is why he was taken off Prevent's list.

"Just because you don't have an ideological motive doesn't mean that you can't be a mass killer and incredibly dangerous," the chancellor added.

Read more:
The 14 minutes of terror that left three children dead

Ms Reeves defended Sir Keir Starmer and other ministers for not revealing Rudakubana's past last summer when the attack happened.

"I think it's really important that when a government speaks, when ministers speak about something before there's been a trial, that people are very careful about the words that they use," she said.

"Because if a government of any colour added anything to prejudice a trial, then that minister would never be forgiven. And so ministers do have to use words with caution."

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who has two daughters a similar age to the three girls killed, welcomed the Southport inquiry and said the incident was "horrific".

She told Trevor Phillips it was "extremely surprising that so many state bodies were involved at one point".

"Why is it that despite all of these schemes and all of these programmes that we put in place, previous governments, successive previous governments of all parties, certain people still slipped through the cracks?" she said.

The Tory leader added she thinks the government needs to look at the "roots of where these behaviours come from, whether it is extremist ideology of whatever flavour, whether it's religious or related to hate of a particular group or sex".

"We need to start looking more at how we bring more people into society, integrate them across a whole range of issues," she added.

(c) Sky News 2025: Rachel Reeves says 'no stone should be left unturned' in Southport inquiry