Boris Johnson has said he will move to end the early release of people convicted of terrorism offences.
It comes after convicted extremist Sudesh Amman stabbed two people in south London before being killed by police on Sunday.
Amman was shot dead by police after grabbing a knife from a shop and attacking two bystanders in Streatham on Sunday. A third person was injured by flying glass during the gunfire.
Mr Johnson said the automatic early release of prisoners who pose a threat to the public has “come to the end of its useful life”.
The PM said de-radicalising people is a “very, very difficult thing to do”, adding: “There is a big psychological barrier, people find it hard to get back over, and that’s why I stress the importance of the custodial option and that’s why I have come to the end of my patience with the idea of automatic early release and I hope that people will understand why we’re doing that.
“This is a liberal country, it is a tolerant country, but I think the idea of automatic early release for people who obviously continue to pose a threat to the public has come to the end of its useful life.”
(Image: PA)
He also said he was “concerned” about the way convicted terrorists in prison are handled.
“Do you detain them on block, in one group, and try to keep them together because that avoids them, as it were, infecting or passing the virus of their beliefs to others in jails, or do you disperse them and try to stop them reinfecting each other?”
Amman, who was jailed for possessing and distributing terrorist documents in December 2018, had recently been freed from prison, and had been staying at a bail hostel in nearby Leigham Court Road for the past two weeks.
The 20-year-old was under police surveillance as he launched his attack, and was found to be wearing a fake suicide vest after he was shot.
