Taylor Alert – Nigel Farage demands Angela Rayner apologises after Deputy PM claimed he was spreading ‘fake news’ when he questioned whether Southport attacks were linked to terrorism

Angela Rayner is facing calls from Nigel Farage to apologise for suggesting the Southport stabbings were not terror related. 

The Deputy Prime Minister claimed that the Reform UK leader was spreading ‘fake news’ after he questioned whether the killings were linked to terrorism. 

Now he is calling on her to apologise after it emerged that the attacker, Axel Rudakubana, had been referred to the government’s Prevent anti-extremism programme three times. 

The 18-year-old, who was fascinated with mass killings, was also found to have downloaded an Al Qaeda training manual and kept ricin at his family home. 

Rudakubana this week finally admitted murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29.

Officers found the Al-Qaeda training manual and ricin during searches at Rudakubana’s within days of the attack in early August. 

On July 30, one day after the stabbings, Mr Farage issued a statement that suggested the attack could be linked to terrorism. 

The Deputy Prime Minister claimed that Nigel Farage was spreading ‘fake news’ after he questioned whether the killings were linked to terrorism

Mr Farage claimed last night that he had been proved right and Ms Rayner should now apologise

He said: ‘I have to say there are one or two questions. Was this guy being monitored by the security services? Some reports say he was, others less sure…

‘I just wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us. I don’t know the answer to that. I think it is a fair and legitimate question. What I do know is something is going horribly wrong in our once beautiful country.’

Asked about Mr Farage’s words at the time, Ms Rayner told LBC: ‘He must understand that you have a level of responsibility, you’re a community leader, you’re elected to represent your constituency.

‘And therefore you have a level of responsibility with that, and it’s not to stoke up what conspiracy theories or what you think might have happened, or lean into what you think.’

Ms Rayner said that police were doing a ‘difficult job’ and added: ‘We want to establish facts as soon as possible.

‘And we have a responsibility to hold the community together and say, let’s get the facts and then let’s look at what the actual solutions are and what we can do about the horrific situation that we find ourselves in, not to stir up these fake news online.’

Mr Farage claimed last night that he had been proved right and Ms Rayner should now apologise.  

‘Many public figures, including Angela Rayner, made derogatory and inciteful remarks about my comments in the vacuum that followed the terrorist attack in Southport,’ he told the Telegraph. 

‘I was right all along. This man was known to the authorities and the truth was withheld.’

Rudakubana this week finally admitted murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29 

Rudakubana was known to authorities long before he murdered three children and attempted to murder eight other youngsters and two adults in Southport last summer, when he was aged just 17.

The Mail has learnt that authorities knew of his disturbing interest in a school massacre as far back as 2019.

In 2019 he was referred to the Government’s de-radicalisation scheme Prevent on the basis that he had been researching on a school computer for information about the killing of children in school shootings.

But experts deemed that there was no counter-terrorism risk at the time as he was considered not to be motivated by a terrorist ideology.

The question of what ministers knew about Rudakubana and when has blown up 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 knew about the details of the case  ‘as they were emerging’ but could not risk the case collapsing and the ‘vile’ perpetrator walking away free. 

‘That is why the law of this country forbade me or anybody else from disclosing details sooner,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t be forgiven if I had,’ he said. 

‘It was not my personal decision to withhold this information, any more than it was a journalist’s personal decision not to print 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 criticise the decision not to disclose crucial details about Rudakubana’s background. 

‘I think the police should have been more open,’ he told the BBC.

‘In one instance, they should have made it absolutely clear right from the beginning that this perpetrator was not an immigrant, that he was British-born and had lived in Britain throughout his life.

‘It was the false disinformation at saying that he was an immigrant or a recent immigrant that contributed at least to the extent of riots both in Southport and elsewhere.’