Senior politicians can either support the police work on the Southport case or undermine it, the Prime Minister has warned, amid accusations of a cover-up over what was known about the alleged attacker.
Sir Keir Starmer spoke in the House of Commons on Wednesday after MPs were told not to discuss the case while criminal proceedings are ongoing.
Questions have been levelled at the Government over when senior figures knew that fresh charges would be brought against alleged attacker Axel Rudakubana, who is accused of possessing ricin and an al Qaida document as well as murder and attempted murder.
Both the candidates to be the next Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, have publicly asked why the information was not released earlier.
The Prime Minister said: “All of us in this House have a choice to make – including both candidates to be the next Tory leader – they can either support the police in their difficult task or they can undermine the police in their difficult task. And I know which side I’m on.”
Earlier, Mr Jenrick suggested the State had been “lying” to the public.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I want to know when the Prime Minister knew: we don’t know that information, we don’t know what the advice of the police was in this case, and we don’t know why the police has chosen not to say this.
“The effect of this has been that there has been speculation over the summer, there has been a loss of trust in the police and the criminal justice process, and I think that’s wrong.
“The State should not be lying to its own citizens.”
Asked if he thought the State had indeed lied, he said: “We don’t know. We don’t know the reason why this information has been concealed. Why has it taken months for the police to set out basic facts about this case that it is reasonable to believe were known within hours or days of this incident occurring?”
His Tory rival Kemi Badenoch said there were “serious questions to be asked of the police, the CPS and also of Keir Starmer’s response to the whole situation”.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, she added: “Parliament is the right place for this to happen.
“While we must abide by the rules of contempt of court and not prejudice this case, it is important that there is appropriate scrutiny.”
Rudakubana appeared via videolink at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, refusing to speak during the short hearing and keeping his grey sweatshirt pulled up over his mouth and nose.
As well as the two charges announced on Tuesday, he is accused of the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, who were stabbed during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Hart Street, Southport, on July 29, as well as the attempted murder of eight other children, instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes, and possession of a knife.
He will next appear at Liverpool Crown Court on November 13.
Independent reviewer of terrorism legislation Jonathan Hall KC called for the Government and the police to be more open about criminal cases in the wake of the row.
Mr Hall told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “The Government has to be aware, and will be aware, that if there is an information gap, particularly in the mainstream media, then there are other voices, particularly in social media, who will try and fill it.
“I would always say to the Government – and do say to the Government, as I say to the police – if there is information that you can give, put it in the public domain and be really careful that you don’t fall into the trap of saying ‘we can only say zilch, because there are criminal proceedings’.
“Quite often, there’s a fair amount of information that can be put into the public domain and I think I detect that the police are trying to do that.”
The line between whether a violent attack carried out by one individual is terrorism or not is often “wafer-thin”, he told the broadcaster.
The key test is whether an attack was intended to advance an ideological, political, religious or racial cause, Mr Hall said.
“It doesn’t follow, I’m afraid, that because someone has carried out a big attack that they therefore must be advancing a cause.
“There are cases, it sounds bizarre but it’s absolutely true, where someone has got al Qaida material, someone has got IRA material, someone’s got extreme right material, and sometimes all that you can really say when you look at someone’s devices is ‘this individual is fascinated with violence’.”
The Crown Prosecution Service had to have authorisation from government law officers the Attorney General or the Solicitor General to bring the ricin charge.
The BBC reported that senior figures in the Government were told about the possibility of new charges in the Southport case within the last few weeks.
Former prime minister Liz Truss, speaking on TalkTV, said the materials subject to the new charges would have been found “fairly soon” after the knife attack when the suspect’s home was searched.
She said she found it “extraordinary” that the Prime Minister would not have known, and that it seemed that the public had not been told the truth.
The day after the Southport attack, thousands of people turned out for a peaceful vigil in the town but later a separate protest erupted into violence outside a mosque in the town.
In the following week, protests took place in dozens of towns and cities across the country and descended into violence and rioting, with asylum centre hotels in particular targeted.
More than 1,000 arrests have since been made and hundreds of people have been charged and jailed.
A provisional trial date for Rudakubana has been set for January next year.
