The Southport killer is being treated as a terrorist, the Government has confirmed, as a review identified a string of missed opportunities to spot his obsession with extremism.

The Prevent counter-terrorism scheme "prematurely" closed its case on Axel Rudakubana three years before he went on to murder three children in Southport, a government review has found.

A review into the handling of the Southport child killer under the Government's counter-terrorism programme Prevent has concluded "too much focus was placed on the absence of a distinct ideology", security minister Dan Jarvis has said.