Matt Vickers, the Shadow Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire, spoke on GB News about keeping the British public and politicians safe
Shadow Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire, Matt Vickers was handed a brutal swipe during GB News this morning. The Tory MP spoke on the breakfast channel to Cameron Walker and Dawn Neesom about “anti-terror scheme failings.” It comes after the anti-extremism programme has been under increased pressure and scrutiny after two recent terror incidents. The long-awaited report into the Prevent scheme was published on Wednesday, and several recommendations have been suggested to improve the programme. This includes adapting to the online world and applying Prevent to individuals who have no fixed ideology but “a fascination with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks.”
On GB News, Dawn and Cameron interviewed Matt Vickers over the issue, with Dawn grilling him with: “If you’d have done something when you were in power, maybe those three little girls in Southport would still be alive.”
Matt Vickers spoke on GB News to Cameron and Dawn (Image: X/GB News)
Matt said, “The entire thing needs to be looked at. Sir David Amess—I knew him well, and he was an incredible individual whose life was cut short.
“But when you hear stories. It wasn’t once that it was missed—it was a series of errors that allowed individuals like this to slip through the net. Fundamentally, it’s broken. We need to fix this so that it doesn’t happen again.”
Dawn pressed him and said: “But why didn’t you do something about it whilst you were in power?”
He shot back: “That report is in black and white, and objectively, they’ve found those flaws and found what went wrong, and the opportunities that were missed. Yet, the case load in Prevent – 93% of all deaths as a result of terrorism in this country since the 90s are the result of Islamic terrorism. Yet the case load at Prevent is only looking at 13% is Islamic terrorism. We need to get on top of that.”
Matt added: “The Prevent is constantly being reviewed and examined. Today, we have the evidence. They’ve found factual failings. That’s not happened on such a scale before.”
The review was launched following the murder of MP Sir David Amess and the killings of three young girls in Southport, Merseyside last year. Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguiar, and Bebe King died on July 29, 2024, after being killed by Axel Rudakubana.
Rudakubana, now 18, was revealed to have been referred to a government anti-extremism scheme – known as Prevent – three times before the killings took place. Each time he was assessed, he was not deemed a terrorism risk and was not declared a subject of interest to MI5.
