The devastated families of the two children murdered during the Southport massacre are urging they be consulted in the comprehensive public inquiry examining how Axel Rudakubana was left free to commit the heinous mass stabbing.

       In a disgusting attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29 last year, little girls Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were murdered by Axel Rudakubana. In January, he was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for at least 52 years.

       Appearing on Good Morning Britain, the parents of Elsie Stancombe and Bebe King expressed their support for an exhaustive inquiry into the circumstances leading up to the attack and said they wanted to have a say in the scope of any such investigation.

       In a statement to the show, Bebe's parents said: "Our girls just need to be safe, our children need to be safer, and protected."

       Elsie's mother, Jenni Stancombe, added: "It will hold people to account for some of the decisions that they made and as a result allowed this to happen."

       Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was interested in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2016 that killed 22 people, and had talked to others about stabbing people, security minister Dan Jarvis said.

       The security minister said too much emphasis was put on a lack of an ideology behind Rudakubana’s interests, which meant he was not put further through the Prevent programme after being referred three times in 16 months.

       Mr Jarvis said: "The review concluded that too much focus was placed on the absence of a distinct ideology, to the detriment of considering the perpetrator’s susceptibility, grievances and complex needs.

       "There was an under-exploration of the significance of his repeat referrals and the cumulative risk, including his history of violence.”

       Mr Jarvis added: "The overall conclusion of the review is that he should have been case managed through the channel multi-agency process, rather than closed to Prevent. This would have enabled to co-ordinated multi-agency risk management and support."

       The Government has accepted all 14 recommendations for improvements in the Prevent learning review that focused on Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, Dan Jarvis said, as he identified Islamist extremism as the most dangerous terror threat to the UK.

       The security minister said counter-terror police have visited all Prevent areas across the country to see if there are outstanding issues identified in the report.

       He told MPs that the Government has begun an internal review of the Prevent thresholds, which will be completed in April.

       Mr Jarvis said the review will: "Ensure Prevent can deal with the full range of threats we see today, from Islamist extremism, which is the most significant terrorist threat that the UK faces, through to the fascination with mass violence that we saw in the Southport case."