Nigel Farage has hit back after he was called “Tommy Robinson in a suit” over comments he made about the knife attacks in Southport earlier this week.
The Reform UK leader posted a video on social media in which he questioned “whether the truth is being withheld from us” following the killings of three girls in the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club.
The newly-elected MP has faced heavy criticism for the comments, including from Brendan Cox, husband of murdered MP Jo Cox.
Mr Cox told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme that Mr Farage’s remarks were “right out of the Trump playbook” and make him “nothing better than a Tommy Robinson in a suit”.
He added: “It is beyond the pale to use a moment like this to spread your narrative and to spread your hatred, and we saw the results on Southport’s streets last night.”
After riots in Southport on Tuesday night, in which more than 50 police officers were injured, Farage doubled down on his comments, telling the PA news agency the response by Mr Cox was “beneath contempt.”
He insisted he had “merely expressed a sense of sadness and concern that is being felt by absolutely everybody I know – ‘what the hell is going on?’”
Referring to other recent incidents, he said it is “quite legitimate to ask questions”.
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.”
In an interview on Wednesday, Deputy PM Angela Rayner suggested Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will “be looking at” whether the EDL should be proscribed under terrorism laws following the riot.
“We have laws and we have proscribed groups and we do look at that and it is reviewed regularly.
“So I’m sure that that will be something that the home secretary will be looking at as part of the normal course of what we do and the intelligence that we have”, she said.
In an angry three-minute video posted online on Tuesday, former EDL leader Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, criticised the government and the police, saying “none of us are feeling safe in our own country.”
Scotland’s ex-first minister Humza Yousaf has called for the EDL to be banned under terror laws in the wake of the unrest, which Merseyside Police said was believed to involve supporters of the group that had been founded and formerly led by Robinson.
Robinson said what he described as the “mainstream media” was blaming the EDL for the trouble, but he insisted the group “hasn’t existed in a decade”.
Founded in 2009, the EDL’s heyday lasted until 2011, after which it entered a decline.
Nonetheless, the group maintains its active social media presence and continues to stage demonstrations across the country.
Former MP Tobias Ellwood accused Farage of deliberately enflaming tensions after the Southport stabbings, and called on him to delete his video on X.
Replying to the video, Ellwood wrote: “I lost my brother to terrorism.
“To ramp up hatred online by claiming the Southport attack was terrorist related (culminating in riots, a mosque damaged and 27 police injured) is not just reprehensible but needs addressing. Otherwise it will happen again.
“Disgusted how a sitting MP deliberately enflames tensions without any justification.
“Farage should delete this tweet.”
Labour MP Jess Phillips suggested Farage could have attended Parliament to ask questions when a statement was delivered giving an update on the incident on Tuesday.
She wrote on X: “Nigel Farage could yesterday have had the questions, he claims are unanswered, answered if he had bothered to turn up to parliament and ask them during the statement on the incidents in Southport. He didn’t turn up, he grifted instead.”
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner criticised the “disgraceful” rioting in Southport fired up by “disrespectful” online theories.
Without referring to Farage, she told ITV’s This Morning: “Speculation and some of the untruths that have been put around social media, not only is that creating tensions and fear in the community, but it’s disrespectful to family who maybe want those answers that haven’t got those answers.
“My plea is that we all need to step back and just wait and then that information will come but allow the police to do their work”.
The 17-year-old suspect in the Southport killings cannot be named for legal reasons because of his age.
He was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents and is from the village of Banks, just outside Southport.
The suspect remains in custody accused of murder and attempted murder.
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