Sir Keir Starmer appealed for sympathy in a Downing Street press conference about the Southport killings. Yes, the focus was on the murdered children. Six-year-old Bebe, seven-year-old Elsie and Alice, nine, who died following a mass stabbing in the Merseyside seaside town last July.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government must also answer “tough questions” about how authorities failed to stop a violence-obsessed teenager before he stabbed three young girls to death in the seaside town of Southport in July.

Last summer’s Southport killings will mark a “line in the sand” for Britain, Sir Keir Starmer has said, promising to introduce new terror laws if necessary.