Sir Keir Starmer
Prime Minister,
10 Downing Street,
London,
SW1A 2AA
10/04/2025
Dear Prime Minister
I am writing to request your acknowledgment of the attached application and your assurance that you will oversee the matter, to ensure it is appropriately determined and accepted. The application seeks to provide evidence to the Southport Inquiry as a core participant and to ensure that additions are made to the Terms of Reference, in line with the requested additions in the application.
The terms of reference set out yesterday, would allow a failure of MPs including yourself, to address failings within safeguarding systems in relation to bullying and violence in schools including the use of weapons and knives to be overlooked. These failings and the failure to address them, evidently played a significant role in the mobilisation of Axel Muganwa Rudakubana (AMR) towards violence and the horrific events in Southport, yet remarkably have not been identified or included by you or the Government, in the initial framing or terms of reference of the inquiry. This application seeks to ensure that an examination of the failure of MPs including yourself, to address these failings on a number of occasions, is central to proceedings.
Context
Within the Government, through the Department for Education (DfE) and relevant to this application, there are two systems that exist to address concerns involving children and violence:
1. The Prevent system, that addresses concerns/complaints re: children engaging in or at risk of becoming engaged in violent ideologies related to terrorism.
2. The Government safeguarding system, that addresses concerns/complaints re: children involved in bullying, actual violence and violence related incidents in schools, including incidents involving the use of weapons and knives.
A review of the Prevent system, has already accepted that there was a critical failure to see the relevance of AMR’s bullying grievances and his previous issues with violence and use of weapons in school. The review states that grievances are one of the most significant factors that motivate an individual’s mobilisation towards violence. This means that in this case, any failings within the safeguarding system in relation to bullying and violence in schools, are just as relevant to the inquiry as any failings within the Prevent system, if not more so. The safeguarding system should have addressed and resolved any violence and bullying issues AMR had long before it became necessary for Prevent to be engaged. Arguably had the safeguarding system worked as one might expect, there would have been no need to involve Prevent at all. The system evidently failed in this regard.
I have evidenced previously, that the safeguarding system in relation to bullying and violence is significantly flawed in a number of ways, and it is these failings and flaws that likely played a significant role in the mobilisation of AMR towards violence. I had warned you and more than 650 MPs on a number of occasions, about the specific failings within the system in relation to violence involving the use of weapons and knives, and the likelihood that the failings would lead to the deaths of a number of children without intervention. Despite this, you failed to take any action whatsoever to investigate the concerns. Had it not been for those specific failures, the tragic events in Southport would almost certainly not have happened.
This application for Core Participant Status and request to add to the terms of reference, seeks to provide evidence to the inquiry regarding these failings, that would ensure any repeat of these tragic events could be prevented in the future. The evidence would also ensure that all MPs including yourself, who have failed and potentially engaged in a cover up of the issues, who would likely be found to have been personally just as responsible for the murders of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King and Alice da Silva Aguiar as anyone else in authority, can also be held to account.
The evidence I have, demonstrates that if you continue to ignore requests to investigate these failings, that there will inevitably be multiple events of this nature that will happen over the coming months and years, including planned school massacres and other child murders. As Prime Minister, I am presenting you with the opportunity to prevent this from happening, simply by acknowledging this correspondence and taking appropriate action to ensure this application is accepted. Preventing these events is not difficult, the only question is whether or not you are willing to put aside any personal and political interests, including the possibility of having to face a potential criminal investigation in the future, to do so.
In light of the above claims, I am seeking to make an application to provide evidence to the inquiry as a Core Participant under Rule 5(2) of the Inquiry Rules 2006 as both (1) a person who played or may have played a direct and significant role in relation to matters to which the inquiry relates; (2) a person with a significant interest in an important aspect of the matters to which the Inquiry relates.
Secondly, I wish to make an application to ensure that added to the terms of reference, are specific questions in regard to (1) what part any failings in the Government national safeguarding systems, policies and procedures in relation to bullying and violence in schools may have played in events; (2) how were any concerns and complaints related to bullying and violence and the use of weapons and knives by children in schools addressed by MPs in the period leading up to AMR’s referral to Prevent and ultimately to events in Southport.
The attached application clearly sets out the basis for the aforementioned claims, while evidence in support of the claims can be found through the website https://publicinquirynow.co.uk/
I will now look forward to receiving your response and instructions, as to the next steps that should or will be taken to ensure my application is appropriately determined and accepted. Please respond as a matter of urgency and in any event, no later than 7 days from receipt of this correspondence.
Yours sincerely,
Jason Barnett
Safer Schools Campaign Lead