Angela Rayner is facing calls from Nigel Farage to apologize for suggesting the Southport stabbings are not terror-related.
The Deputy Prime Minister claimed the Reform UK leader was spreading 'fake news' after questioning whether the killings were linked to terrorism.
Now he is calling on her to apologize after it emerged that the attacker, Axel Rudakubana, had been referred to the government's anti-extremism program Prevent three times.
The 18-year-old, who was fascinated by mass killings, was also found to have downloaded an Al Qaeda training manual and kept ricin at his home.
Rudakubana finally admitted this week to killing Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29.
Officers found the al-Qaeda training manual and ricin during searches at Rudakubana's home within days of the attack in early August.
On July 30, one day after the stabbing, Farage issued a statement suggesting the attack could be linked to terrorism.
Deputy Prime Minister claimed Nigel Farage spread 'fake news' after questioning whether murders were linked to terrorism
Mr Farage claimed last night that he had been proven right and that Ms Rayner should now apologise
He said: 'I have to say there are one or two questions. Was this man being watched by the security services? Some reports say he was, others are less sure…
“I just wonder if the truth is being withheld from us. I don't know the answer to that. I think this is a fair and legitimate question. What I do know is that something is going terribly wrong in our once beautiful country.'
Asked about Mr Farage's words at the time, Ms Rayner told LBC: 'He needs to understand that you have a degree of responsibility, that you are a community leader, that you have been elected to represent your constituency.
“And so you have some responsibility in that, and the intention is not to stir up conspiracy theories or what you think might have happened, or to lean into what you think.”
Ms Rayner said police were doing a “difficult job”, adding: “We want to establish the facts as quickly as possible.
“And we have a responsibility to hold the community together and say, let's get the facts and then look at what the actual solutions are and what we can do about the horrific situation we're in, not feed this fake news to stir up. online.'
Mr Farage claimed last night that he had been proven right and that Ms Rayner should now apologise.
“Many public figures, including Angela Rayner, made derogatory and inflammatory comments about my comments in the vacuum that followed the Southport terrorist attack,” he told the Telegraph.
'I was right all along. This man was known to the authorities and the truth was withheld.”
Rudakubana finally admitted this week to killing Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29
Rudakubana was known to authorities long before he murdered three children and tried to kill eight other youths and two adults in Southport last summer, when he was just 17 years old.
The Mail has learned that authorities were aware of his disturbing interest in a school massacre as early as 2019.
In 2019, he was referred to the government's Prevent deradicalisation program for researching information about the killings of children in school shootings on a school computer.
But experts believed there was no counter-terrorism risk at the time because he was not believed to be motivated by a terrorist ideology.
The question of what ministers knew about Rudakubana and when has turned into a major political row, amid claims they 'covered up' key details.
At an emergency press conference earlier this week, Sir Keir Starmer confirmed he was aware of the details of the case 'as they emerged' but could not risk the case collapsing and the 'vile' perpetrator walking free would run away.
“That is why the law of this land forbade me or anyone else from disclosing details earlier,” he said. “If I had, I wouldn't be forgiven,” he said.
“It was not my personal decision to withhold this information, any more than it was any journalist's personal decision not to publish or write about it.”
Police officers at Rudakubana's home on Old School Close in Banks, Lancashire, last August
Lord Carlile, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, yesterday became the latest senior figure to criticize the decision not to make crucial details of Rudakubana's background public.
“I think the police should have been more open,” he told the BBC.
'In one case they should have made it absolutely clear from the start that this perpetrator was not an immigrant, that he was of British descent and had lived in Britain all his life.
“It was the false disinformation saying he was an immigrant or a recent immigrant that at least contributed to the scale of the riots, both in Southport and elsewhere.”
