Ben Birchall/PA
Nigel Farage said he was misled by Andrew Tate and “other folk with big followings” into incorrectly suggesting that the man charged with the Southport killings “was known to security services”.
The Reform UK leader engaged with misleading information that emerged in the wake of the tragic stabbings in the north west which had been allowed to spread across multiple platforms and was amplified by high-profile social media accounts.
Suggestions that the attacker was a Muslim extremist targeting little girls who had come on a boat from Syria and was being monitored by security services became widely shared by people, sparking protests which have now entered their seventh day.
Farage was accused of “whipping up” rioters in Southport after he doubled down on remarks he made in a social media video in which he questioned “whether the truth is being withheld from us”.
He told PA: “I think it’s perfectly reasonable to ask what is happening to law and order in our country.
“And who are the perpetrators? Why? Very legitimate questions I was asking, and to conflate that with EDL (English Defence League) or anybody else, frankly, it’s desperate stuff.”
Reflecting on the comments seven days on from the incident in an interview with LBC’s Tom Swarbrick, he appears to have changed his tune somewhat:
