Labour has clamped down on access to one of the chemicals found in the home of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana
Ricin, which is 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide, was found when police raided the Rudakubana household.
The biological toxin was found in a sealed food container under Rudakubana’s bed, which experts said he made using equipment in his bedroom.
Ricin is produced naturally by the castor bean plant and is already strictly controlled, but the seeds used to produce it can be bought for use in gardening and decoration.
Labour wants to add castor beans containing ricin and rosary peas containing abrin to the list of regulated poisons under UK law.
This would make it a criminal offence to sell them to anyone without a licence.
Phase one of the Southport Inquiry recommended greater regulation around the availability of castor beans.
The changes will be the subject of a public consultation.
Ricin is made from the castor oil plant
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GETTY
Security minister Dan Jarvis said: “Protecting the public is our first duty. While these substances can have legitimate uses, we must stop them from being weaponised by those who want to cause harm.
“We will close the gaps exposed by the Southport attack and tighten the law to stop these dangerous chemicals falling into the wrong hands.”
In September 1978, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated in London using a ricin-loaded umbrella.
Doctors treating him were initially baffled by his symptoms and suspected he had an especially serious case of blood poisoning.
Dan Jarvis said Labour wanted to ‘close the gap’
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PARLIAMENT TVRudakubana, now 20, was given a life sentence for the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults.
He carried out the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29 2024.
When officers raided his home, officers discovered a container of castor oil and the residue of ricin pulp produced by mashing the beans.
He was found to have used enough castor beans to produce up to 1,269 lethal doses of ricin if inhaled.
Ricin was found under the bed of Axel Rudakubana
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PA
The proposals would bring ricin under the Poisons Act 1972, which aims to clamp down on poisons and explosives precursors, restricting the public’s access to the most dangerous materials.
Breaches of the act carry a jail sentence of two years, an unlimited fine or both.
In the years before the attack on the Southport dance class, three separate referrals were made to the Government’s anti-terror programme, Prevent, about Rudakubana’s behaviour, as well as six separate calls to police.
Rudakubana attacked a pupil with a hockey stick, used school computers to look up the London Bridge terror outrage and carried a knife on a bus.
Tributes left to the victims of the Southport attacks
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GETTYPhase two of the Southport Inquiry is examining how the risks of violence-fixated individuals can be managed.
The first phase of the inquiry heard Rudakubana had viewed degrading, violent and misogynistic material online which “fed” a fascination with violence.
Sir Adrian Fulford, who chaired the first phase, found the attack, “could and should have been prevented”.
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