New offence to cover attacks planned by non-terrorists

A new criminal offence is to be introduced to "close the gap" between lone, violence-obsessed individuals with no particular ideology and terrorism suspects, the home secretary has said.

- Haroon Siddique

Yvette Cooper said an offence that would give police the power to apprehend the former long before they acted was needed in the wake of the Southport attack last year. Terrorism suspects can be jailed for life even if their plans are not fully formed.

Axel Rudakubana, then 17, stabbed three young girls to death at a summer holiday dance class in July last year and attempted to murder eight other children and two adults who tried to protect them.

Cooper told BBC Radio 4's State of Terror series: "There is a gap in the law around the planning of mass attacks that can be just as serious [as terrorism] in their implications for communities, their impact, the devastation that they can cause and the seriousness of the crime. We will tighten legislation so that that is taken as seriously as terrorism."