Prevent chief quits in wake of Southport failings

The head of the government's controversial counter-terrorism programme Prevent is leaving his position after a damning inquiry revealed the strategy's failures to stop the Southport stabbings last year.

- Aletha Adu

Michael Stewart had spearheaded the programme - which aims to stop people from becoming involved in or supporting terrorism - since September 2020.

He was in charge when reviews of the stabbing and earlier incidents criticised the strategy's focus and exposed basic failings that ultimately hampered officials' ability to stop the Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana.

In February, a rapid learning review found Prevent had misspelt Rudakubana's surname in its database, a factor that may have hampered its assessment of him as being a possible mass murderer.

The review found Rudakubana had his case in the Prevent programme closed "prematurely" after he was referred three times for an interest in knives and mass atrocities between December 2019 and April 2021.

Rudakubana murdered Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, at a dance class in Southport on 29 July last year.