Southport Still Haunts Britain

One year ago today, a 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana walked into the Hart Street dance studio through the open front door. Here, 26 children were attending a dance and yoga workshop themed around the music of Taylor Swift. Armed with a kitchen knife, Rudakubana launched into a 12-minute long stabbing spree that would take the lives of three young girls—six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar. Bebe and Elsie died at the scene, while Alice would die in hospital from her injuries the following day. Ten more people—six children and two adults—were injured, most of them critically. 

Almost as quickly as news of the attack broke, speculation swirled online. Police were unable to name Rudakubana due to his age, and so rumours filled the information vacuum. Eddie Murray, a local parent, wrote on LinkedIn that the attacker was a migrant. On X, a prominent right-wing account, run by a woman named Bernadette Spofforth, claimed the perpetrator was an illegal migrant called Ali Al-Shakati, who had arrived in the UK on a small boat. These rumours proliferated and evolved into claims that “Al-Shakati” was a Islamist extremist who was known to the authorities. The story, though untrue, spoke of a pattern that many Brits were familiar with. 

In Southport itself, tensions reached a head the day after the attack, when residents learnt that nine-year-old Alice had died overnight. That evening, at a vigil for the victims, Prime Minister Keir Starmer was heckled by angry locals as he laid flowers. “How many more children will die on our streets, Prime Minister?” one man asked. “Are you going to do something?” By nightfall, hundreds were gathered outside Southport Mosque. They threw bricks, rocks, and bottles, and set fire to a police van. Common chants included “Who the f**k is Allah?” and “We want our country back!”