Yvette Cooper has pledged to change the law to treat people fixated on violence as seriously as terrorists in the wake of last year’s Southport attack.
The Home Secretary said she would address a “gap in the law” against planning mass casualty attacks that had no ideological basis, but could be “just as serious” as terrorism in their impact.
She said: “We have to make sure that the system is able to respond to violent fixated individuals. We will tighten that legislation so that that is taken as seriously as terrorism.”
Her commitment, first made in an interview with the BBC, would implement a recommendation from the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, who examined whether terror laws needed to be changed to deal with people such as Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana.
The review was prompted by revelations that Rudakubana had been referred to the counter-extremism Prevent programme, but his case had not been followed up as he lacked an ideological motivation.
He went on to murder three young girls and seriously wound 10 other people at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport last year and is currently serving a life sentence.
Mr Hall’s review recommended against widening the definition of terrorism to include individuals such as Rudakubana, but suggested creating a new offence to deal with people who plan mass casualty attacks motivated by personal grievance or an obsession with violence for its own sake.
Ms Cooper said there was now a “pattern” of teenagers being “drawn into extreme violence and extreme ideologies” in their own bedrooms thanks to “a really distorted and warped online world”.
She said: “The sorts of things that we’re now increasingly seeing online with violent fixated individuals, where there may not be a clear ideology, it may be a fixation with violence, or they may switch between different ideologies.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “We are supportive of measures to deal with suspects planning these acts before they can cause devastating harm.
“But the truth is that Britain’s terror threat is being driven by a clear and growing Islamist threat, and Labour refuse to face it. Prevent is barely engaging with Islamist ideology and our security services are being distracted by politically correct box-ticking.
“We must refocus Prevent on the real threat, shutting down online radicalisation networks, deporting foreign extremists and criminals, and giving our security services every tool they need to keep the public safe.”
