Reform was banned from discussing Southport ‘striker’ in parliament, Nigel Farage reports

Reform MPs have been banned from asking questions in parliament about a teenager accused of stabbing in Southport, Nigel Farage has said, warning that it would “undermine” confidence in democracy.

Mr Farage accused Sir Keir Starmer of using fear “to shut down public debate he finds uncomfortable” after Axel Rudakuban was charged with terrorism.

Writing for The Telegraph, the Reform UK leader describes how MPs were silenced when they wanted to raise the issue in the Commons, including “panicked emails” and phone calls asking them not to ask questions about the case.

He said: “There is no conclusion other than that the state apparatus is being used to manage this situation.”

The announcement that Mr. Rudakubana, 18, was charged with possessing a military study of an al-Qaida training manual and manufacturing the poison ricin sparked a debate about the public’s right to know after the killings of three young girls at a dance class in July.

The attack sparked unrest, which Mr Farage and others blamed in part on a lack of information from the authorities about the suspect’s identity and history, which allowed a false story to spread.

At the time, police said the deaths of Baby King, Elsie Dot Stancomb and Alicia da Silva Aguiar, as well as the stabbings of eight other children and two adults, were not being treated as a terrorist incident. Police and prosecutors did not say whether the accused had applied to the anti-terrorist initiative Prevent, one of the speculative questions Mr Farage had been asking since July.

Mr Farage writes in The Telegraph: “The day after the three murders in Southport I saw certain key facts about this brutality fall into a vacuum. This has led to useless speculation on the internet. I felt it was important for the public to know more…

“I understand the importance of not prejudicing future litigation, but in the current environment, it does not seem possible to separate the current litigation from the issues I raised over the summer. This is deeply disturbing.”

Mr Farage says he sent a written question to Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, asking whether the accused had applied to the Terrorism Prevention Initiative, but was told by House of Commons representatives that he could not ask because of an ongoing court case.

After new charges were brought against the accused, police and prosecutors made it clear that the stabbings were not being treated as an act of terrorism.

Sir Keir, a former director of public prosecutions, did not say when he and other ministers first learned of the discovery of terrorist material and ricin said to be in Mr Rudakubana’s possession.

Mr Farage said his Reform UK colleague Richard Tice had been chosen to question Sir Keir at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

He writes: “That morning he received three panicked emails from the House of Commons authorities asking what the content of his question might be. Then, an hour before PMQs, he received a phone call telling him not to ask anything about the man accused of the Southport attacks. This point was strongly reinforced by the Speaker of the House of Commons just before the start of PMQs. Parliamentary privileges were effectively abolished.

“Therefore, at present, it appears that no one is allowed to ask in the proper forum when the government first learned that the accused had been charged with ricin and terrorism.

“Similarly, no one can know if this man was in any way known to the authorities. Do we really want to live in a society where such important information is kept from the public? Who decided that these details remain secret?

“I believe that this apparent suppression is damaging to democracy. It definitely undermines public trust, making me ask myself: what is the point of being a public representative if even we are not allowed to ask questions that used to be considered reasonable? It is impossible to draw a conclusion other than that the state apparatus is being used to manage this situation.”

The government’s terror czar, Jonathan Hall QC, said “more information could have been released safely without involving potential criminal proceedings”.

Lord Carlisle, an expert and former independent researcher on counter-terrorism law, said that in circumstances such as those surrounding the Southport stabbings, “the police should probably tell the media who has been arrested and what their background is”. .

On Wednesday, Mr Tice asked the prime minister whether he agreed that “in terrorist incidents, it is important that the authorities provide more information earlier to prevent an information gap”.

Sir Keir replied that MPs “can either support the police in their difficult task or they can undermine the police in their difficult task. I know which side I’m on.”

Mr Farage says Sir Keir’s government has “used fear very effectively to shut down public debate that he finds inconvenient”, but he cannot forever evade questions about the handling of the Southport attack.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.