John McDonell has it in one in relation to Farage this week and the incidents at Southport and elsewhere.
Farage had posted a video on X on Tuesday in which he said he had "one or two questions" as he speculated about whether the stabbing suspect was being monitored by security services. After the attack, a false name of the suspect and claims he was an Islamist extremist were being circulated on social media, prompting police to say the details were not true.
"I just wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us. I don't know the answer to that, but I think it is a fair and legitimate question," he said. The Clacton MP has defended his comments, saying it is "quite legitimate to ask questions".
John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, said he thought the House of Commons standards commissioner should investigate whether Farage's video brought parliament into disrepute. "We are at a dangerous moment in our society in which racist thugs feel they have been given permission by the statements of some national politicians to be able to express their racist views and run riot with impunity," he said.
And:
A former counter-terrorism police chief has accused Nigel Farage of helping incite violence that broke out in Southport after the killing of three children in a knife attack this week.
Farage drew criticism from across the political spectrum for remarks he made in a video on Tuesday in which he questioned "whether the truth is being withheld from us" after the attack on Monday.
Neil Basu – a former senior Scotland Yard officer who was in charge of counter-terrorism from 2018 to 2021 – said there were "real world consequences" when public figures failed to "keep their mouth shut".
"Nigel Farage is giving the EDL [English Defence League] succour, undermining the police, creating conspiracy theories, and giving a false basis for the attacks on the police," he said, referring to the far-right, Islamophobic group whose supporters are believed to have been involved in the rioting in Southport.
Starmer isn't condemning Farage's rhetoric. I wonder has he thought that through? Even George Osborne is arguing that Farage's approach was an 'absolute outrage'.
As to the issue of questions, as was put by one local representative if in Southport, what answer is sought? That someone was Muslim or not? And to what purpose? How does that move matters along in relation to the police investigation or the legal processes that are in train? Who benefits from this, how does it alter matters? And of course it doesn't. But what we see in these instances and others is the weaponisation of utter tragedies for political gain by a range of actors. One has to ask at what point is that dynamic that repeats again and again going to be addressed within our polities and condemned tirelessly for what it is?
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