Jump to… The political framing of the Southport atrocity as a Prevent failure ignores the counter-terrorism mechanisms beyond the Prevent framework.  Following the revelation that Axel Rudakubana was referred to Prevent three times between 2019 and 2021, there has been much discussion about Prevent’s role in relation to the atrocity in Southport. Prior to the wider public inquiry under the new independent Prevent commissioner Lord Anderson, a review focused on Prevent had been commissioned by the Home Office and Counter Terrorism Policing, the “Prevent Learning Review: Southport Attack”. Media coverage of its publication reports serious failures in the government’s Prevent strategy. These are associated with the fact that no appropriate action seemed to have been taken, despite Rudakubana having been reported to Prevent three times. The claims are firstly that these should have been treated cumulatively, rather than as three separate incidents. Secondly, it is claimed  that three referrals warranted […]