Britain Confronts Nottingham Killings Failures; Starmer Targets Big Tech

The close of the Nottingham attacks inquiry dominated the day. Speaking in London after the 14-week hearing ended, the families of Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, said it had laid bare a "catastrophic collapse of responsibility" by the authorities meant to keep them safe. Valdo Calocane, who had paranoid schizophrenia and killed the three in June 2023, had been sectioned four times before mental-health services that "lost" him discharged him to his GP, and was the subject of an arrest warrant police failed to execute in the nine months before the attacks. Barnaby's mother, Emma Webber, accused the NHS and police of "cover-up over candour" and demanded the government meet the families within a month; Grace's parents, both doctors, argued clinicians should breach patient confidentiality when public safety is at risk. Chair Deborah Taylor KC will report next year, though the bodies involved face no legal duty to act on her recommendations.

Hours later, the government turned to a different failure of protection. Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave Apple and Google three months to activate or update software that stops under-18s from taking, sending or viewing nude images, threatening legislation carrying fines or criminal liability if they refuse. Ministers said 91% of online child-sexual-abuse reports in 2024 involved self-generated content from children. The move was backed by Jess Phillips, the former safeguarding minister who resigned over the slow pace of action and who said the measure could "eliminate child sexual abuse online in the UK" within months.

Both interventions land on a Labour government in its worst stretch since the 2024 election. Starmer's approval is the lowest of any prime minister in half a century, and his party's standing has fallen sharply after local elections that cost Labour around 1,500 English council seats while Reform UK gained more than 1,450; in Wales, the Senedd result ended a century of Labour dominance. Phillips was among a wave of ministerial resignations in recent weeks, including that of Health Secretary Wes Streeting, leaving Starmer to argue his government can still deliver on the questions of child safety and institutional accountability that voters say it has neglected.