Farage blasts Starmer for ‘gigantic cover-up’ as it emerges Southport killer was referred to anti-terror scheme 3 TIMES

As reported by the , Mr Farage accused the Government of behaving “abominably” from day one.

This comes after the Reform UK leader was blocked from asking questions in Parliament about Rudakubana's background and if he was known to the police. 

He was told this was due to ongoing court proceedings, which the politician branded "completely wrong".

Mr Farage claimed the riots sparked after the tragedy were a result of withholding of information from the public.

The violence was provoked after false rumours spread that the attacker was an asylum seeker.

The barrage of misinformation and conspiracy theories on social media, especially X, previously known as Twitter, incited fear and anger among the public, further inflaming tensions​​.

Mr Farage told the Telegraph: “I was pretty certain from what I had been told very early on that this was a terrorist-related attack."

The Reform UK leader said he knew shortly after the murders Rudakubana had been expelled from school at the age of 13 for possession of a knife.

“This reflects very badly on the Prime Minister. We have been denied the truth on this by the police and the Government, it is disgraceful," Mr Farage continued.

“There has been a gigantic cover up from day one, the authorities knew very very quickly about his expulsion from school, the ricin making and the Al-Qaeda material, yet they refused to class the murders as terror related for fear of the reaction there might have been.”

Rudakubana pleaded guilty to 16 charges as:

• The victims' families were not in court to see his plea
•  He showed violent behaviour while in high school
•  He was reported to anti-terror programme three times
•  Rudakubana spoke out loud in court for the first time
•  Prosecutor described attack as "unspeakable" after pleas

Rudakubana today pleaded guilty to murdering Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, at a Taylor Swift dance class.

He also admitted two terror offences - but cops are not treating the attack as terror-related despite the previous concerns over his behaviour.

It can now be revealed that one of the referrals made to Prevent was over Rudakubana's potential interest in a school massacre.

He used computers at his own school to search for material but it was decided that he did not fit the criteria for the voluntary scheme.

Two years later, he was referred again after viewing material on previous terror attacks - including those in London in 2017.

Although there were no concerns over a particular ideology or religious hatred, his obsession with violence had caused fears.

But he was not found to have posed a terrorism risk and therefore did not reach the threshold for intervention by Prevent.

After one of the referrals, it was recommended that Rudakubana be referred to other services but is not known if this happened.

Several terror attacks have been carried out by extremists referred to the Prevent scheme, including Ali Harbi Ali, who murdered Tory MP Sir David Amess in 2021.

Rudakubana was due to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court today but dramatically pleaded guilty to all 16 charges against him.

Among the charges were three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder.

He also admitted possession of information "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000".

And he pleaded guilty to one charge of the "production of a biological toxin, namely ricin, contrary to Section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974".

This relates to an Al-Qaeda manual and ricin that were found at his home following the attack.