Downing Street has rejected calls for sentencing reforms, saying it does not have the power to extend whole-life sentences to killers aged under 18 because of international law.
Axel Rudakubana was sentenced to 52 years in prison on Thursday for the murder of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at a dance class last July, and the attempted murder of eight others, as well as two adults who tried to save them.
He was not given a whole-life sentence because he was 17 at the time of the murders.
Even though Rudakubana is not likely to be considered for release until he is 70 years old, the Labour MP for Southport, Patrick Hurley, said the sentence was “not severe enough”. His comments were followed by calls from the Conservatives who said there was a “strong case” for the law to be changed, one that their party would “start to explore”.
While No 10 echoed remarks by the defence secretary, John Healey, that the UN convention on children’s rights stopped Britain from being able to impose unlimited sentences on under-18s, their views appeared to differ as Healey refused to rule out changing the law to extend whole-life sentences to killers aged under 18.
“We owe it to those victims to consider and then deliver the changes that their memories deserve,” Healey told Times Radio, adding: “The prime minister has made it clear that nothing is off the table.”
A spokesperson for No 10 said: “We share the public’s disgust at the extent of the crimes here, and we, as the defence secretary said this morning, don’t want to see this man ever coming out of prison. And that’s a view shared by the government.”
However, they added: “We’re restricted in our ability to extend whole-life orders by UN laws. And I think it’s important to reiterate, this is something the previous government recognised when it changed the law in this area previously.”
The Reform UK MPs Rupert Lowe and Lee Anderson called for the return of the death penalty – the minimum age for which was raised to 18 in 1933, before it was abolished in Great Britain in 1969.
Downing Street insisted the government had no plans to bring back capital punishment, and said parliament had consistently voted against it being restored in recent decades.
Hurley said he was alarmed by the prospect of Rudakubana being allowed to apply for parole when some of the survivors of the attack would be in their 50s.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: “What I don’t want is that those little girls, who’ve had their childhoods traumatised, are then retraumatised when they get to the age of 55, maybe 56, and have to see him apply for parole again and again.”
Rudakubana was not present to hear Mr Justice Goose impose a life sentence with a minimum term of 52 years, as the court was told he was likely to be “disruptive”.
The government plans to change the law so criminals are forced to attend their sentencing hearings, but if defendants are “purposefully disruptive” or “offensive” during proceedings, their attendance may not be appropriate, Downing Street said.
A No 10 spokesperson said they hoped the public inquiry into the Southport stabbings would move “as quickly as time allows”.
Timetables and terms of reference would be set out once the government had consulted the coroner and given families the opportunity to comment, they said.
