'EXTREMELY DANGEROUS'

Farage is accused of fanning the flames on migrants

- BY SOPHIE HUSKISSON, LIZZY BUCHAN & ASHLEY COWBURN

WITH the country still trying to heal from the hate stoked up after the Southport murders, Nigel Farage last night faced claims he is again inflaming tensions.

The right-wing Reform UK leader trotted out allegations of a cover-up in the case of two men accused of raping a girl aged 12 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

It was a similar line he used regarding the identity of the attacker who killed three girls in Southport.

Reform's Nuneaton council leader had claimed the pair were asylum seekers, which is not confirmed.

Farage told a press conference in London yesterday: "What we will today be talking about is a cover-up, a cover-up that, in many ways, is reminiscent of what happened after the Southport killings. What caused unrest on our streets after Southport last year was us not being told the status of the attacker.

"That led to crazy conspiracy theories spreading online."

After three young girls were stabbed to death by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana in the Merseyside town, speculation was rife about who the killer was and his ethnicity.

Clacton MP Farage posted a video asking "whether the truth is being held from us".

The misinformation

ACCUSATIONS

Farage yesterday

After Farage's latest comments, one Labour MP said: "He's maliciously fanning the flames." Campaign group Hope Not Hate's Joe Mulhall warned the "anger and tension" of last summer's disorder had not gone away.