The head of the Prevent counter-terrorism programme, Michael Stewart, is to carry the can for failures exposed by the Southport attack last year. Stewart’s role has been in question for some time, following revelations that Prevent failed to stop Axel Rudakubana murdering three girls at a dance class in Merseyside last July.
Rudakubana was first referred to Prevent in 2019, when he was just 13
A ‘Prevent learning review’ after the attack revealed a damning catalogue of basic failures. It found that counterterrorism police missed several chances to stop the killer, and that Prevent ‘prematurely’ dismissed the threat posed by Rudakubana on each of the three occasions he was flagged to the programme.
Rudakubana was first referred to Prevent in 2019, when he was just 13-years-old, after a teacher became concerned he was using the internet to research mass school shootings. He was referred again in February 2021, when he was 14; and finally in April 2021. The review concluded that too much focus was placed on the absence of a distinct ideology, and that officials had not shown the level of professional curiosity expected. The findings revealed that officers misspelt Rudakubana’s name on his second and third referrals. This may have led to the premature closure of his case, because investigators were not able to see his previous referrals on the system.
But this wasn’t the end of the embarrassment. It was subsequently revealed that the review into the failings itself contained significant inaccuracies, as well as contradictions and discrepancies. This posed fresh questions and doubts about Prevent’s record-keeping. Asked about why such discrepancies had occurred, the Home Office offered the justification that the speed at which the learning review had been carried out was to blame. This is a risible line of defence. Lord Carlile of Berriew, the UK’s former independent reviewer of terrorism, was quick to point out that it was simply ‘inexcusable’ for public services such as Prevent not to get the basics right. Such cases can be a matter of life and death, so there can be no scope for mistakes.
Stewart has been in the firing line for some time. Fingers were pointed in his direction over a controversial internal Home Office review of extremism that concluded that claims of two-tier policing were an extreme right-wing narrative.
The investigation was commissioned by Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, in the wake of public unrest that followed the Southport murders.
The review claimed that right-wing extremists “frequently exploit” the grooming gangs scandal to promote anti-Muslim sentiment. It proposed sweeping changes to the way extremism is dealt with, saying it should no longer be based on specific ideologies, such as Islamism or the far-right but ‘on behaviours and activity of concern’. When the findings were leaked in January, ministers rushed to make public that they had rejected the report’s recommendations. Such an open ministerial disavowal tells its own story. It was only a matter of time before Stewart would be given his marching orders.
Few will shed a tear at his departure, but the problems of Prevent go much deeper than one individual. The scheme is aimed at stopping terrorism and radicalisation, as well as safeguarding communities from threats, but it has been dogged by controversy from its inception more than two decades ago.
It isn’t just in the Southport case that Prevent has been found wanting. The learning review into the murder of the MP, Sir David Amess, was published just last month. It found that Amess’s killer, Ali Harbi Ali, was also flagged to the counterterrorism scheme, but that his case was dismissed too swiftly. It also revealed that record-keeping errors led to a breakdown in communications between Prevent officers and the police, and that signs of Ali’s possible radicalisation were missed. In essence, a repeat of the same broad failings identified in the Southport case.
No one can be in any doubt that Prevent cannot continue in its present form. Its internal system of checks on threats is not robust enough. Review after review has identified failings and deficiencies. The government says a new framework for tackling extremism and hateful ideologies is in the pipeline. Ministers need to get their skates on, if horrors such as the one that took place in Southport, are to be prevented.
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