Investigate Farage for 'dangerous comments', says MP

The Commons standards watchdog should hold Nigel Farage to account over his "dangerous comments" following the violent disorder in the wake of the Southport murders, a Liverpool MP has said.

- Aletha Adu , Rowena Mason

Kim Johnson, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said Farage's comments "cannot be left to fester" and should be examined by the parliamentary standards commissioner.

Farage has released two videos since three children were murdered in Southport last week. In the first, he questioned whether police were withholding information about who was responsible for the murders.

It came at a time when false information was circulating on social media saying that a Muslim asylum seeker was responsible, which fuelled disorder at a mosque in Southport.

In a second video, he challenged Keir Starmer's argument that the protests were the fault of the far right, saying they were "a reaction to fear, to discomfort, to unease that is out there shared by tens of millions of people".

Lee Anderson, the Reform MP and former Tory deputy chair, made a similar argument, writing on X: "This problem has been caused by smug politicians who have refused to listen to the concerns of British people. It has festered and now it has boiled over. Parliament must listen, parliament must act but it must not blame the British people."

Senior politicians have held back from being too critical of Farage, although the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, said on Wednesday that the Reform leader had "a level of responsibility... and it's not to stoke up what conspiracy theories or what you think might have happened".