CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "The assailant in the Southport massacre has pleaded guilty to the murders of three children in the town last year. Keir Starmer has leapt with unusual speed to authorise a public inquiry into what drove Axel Rudakubana into his frenzy of killing and if it could have been prevented. We now know that the state’s protective agencies crossed Rudakubana multiple times; he was referred three times to the government’s Prevent strategy, which is supposed to spot and stop tomorrow’s terrorists before hateful thought turns into lethal action."

CEP Strategic Advisor Liam Duffy interviewed: "EXCLUSIVE: Over half of all counter extremism referrals are children. Counter terrorism expert Liam Duffy: "Very few of those referrals will go on to be channel cases... Prevent was turning into a bit of a clearing house, where any kind of vulnerability is referred."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "Thanks to a new National Audit Office report on jail capacity, we now know that prison is awful — but there’s also not enough of it. This paradox sits at the heart of the present overcrowding crisis."

"Robinson presents a problem for the prison service. “The decisions around how and where Robinson will be held are fraught with difficulty for prison bosses,” said Ian Acheson, a counter-extremism adviser and former prison governor...Acheson warned that attempts were being made to propagandise his imprisonment, and misinformation about his treatment was already spreading on social media. The Tommy Robinson propaganda machine seems unlikely to go away."

"“Love or loathe him, all can agree that Tommy Robinson faces a torrid time as he is committed to imprisonment after pleading guilty to contempt of court. At Woolwich Crown Court this week, we heard from Mr Justice Johnson that Robinson’s breaches of an injunction following a libel trial that he lost were so serious that any suggestion of a non-custodial sentence was impossible… Ian Acheson, the former head of security at HMP Wandsworth, told me the authorities will face ‘a big headache when dealing with Robinson' s custody.’ He said that on the one hand the offence for which he received a prison sentence is relatively minor and there is no record of him misbehaving in his previous sentence.”

"Robinson was also kept isolated during his last stint in prison, something which would be a "headache" for prisoner officers, according to former prison governor Ian Acheson."

"Writing in August, Ian Acheson, a former counter-terrorism official who also worked as director of community safety at the Home Office, warned that pursuing a strategy of minimal information risked creating a void that would be exploited by elements of the far-right determined to break community cohesion. Acheson called for all the facts about the background of the alleged perpetrator to be disclosed “as soon as possible,” urging the police not to engage in “further dithering”."

"Former prison governor Ian Acheson said the decision where to put Robinson would be a 'real headache' for the prison service.

'You have someone who would not be considered an escape risk, hasn't been convicted for a crime of violence and has been found guilty of breaking a civil restriction, so normally he could be put in open conditions,' he said.

'But open prisons are very unsupervised and that could leave Robinson at risk of being attacked.

'There is also a risk of his presence disrupting the good order of the prison due to the presence of people who might sympathise with him - particularly as the far-right push the narrative of the rioters being ''political prisoners''.' "

“Ian Acheson and Paul Embery discuss the rioter who has died in prison. This is a clip from the latest episode of the spiked podcast.”