Nigel Farage just publicly condemned the rise of “misinformation” over the Manchester Airport police incident in the summer, even though the Reform UK leader was accused of spreading misinformation himself just months ago.
The party was holding a press conference to complain about police transparency following an incident in July, when officers clashed with two members of the public at Manchester Airport.
The police were heavily criticised on social media for appearing to be too heavy-handed, based on the first CCTV clip which was released.
Reform UK claimed that a “very senior person within Greater Manchester Police (GMP) or above” did not release the full CCTV from the full incident until four days later.
According to the party, this meant a “false impression was allowed to permeate that the officers had in fact attacked first”.
In a letter to home secretary Yvette Cooper, Reform UK claimed: “This significant decision led to misinformation circulating, protests and utterly false allegations against the police officers and the GMP.”
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice also used the press conference to condemn this “terrible sense of misinformation” which was allowed to “permeate through society”.
However, Farage himself was accused of spreading misinformation in the summer after three girls were killed in the Southport knife attack, which led to right-wing riots across the country.
The Clacton MP claimed the suspect may have been “known to the security services” – which was later found to be false – and asked “whether the truth is being withheld from us” in a viral video posted online.
In August, he was pressed over his claims on LBC radio and admitted he “hadn’t got a clue” whether the information he was pressing was misinformation.
“Some reports suggest the attacker was known to the security services,” Farage told LBC. “I asked for the fake news to be knocked down; I asked for the truth to be told.
“One of the reasons the Southport riots were as bad as they were is we weren’t told the truth.
“There were stories online from some very prominent folks with big followings, Andrew Tate, etc, suggesting the man had crossed the English Channel in October 2023.
“Other suggestions he was an active Muslim.”
He claimed: “What I asked for was clarity. We didn’t get clarity and I would argue I would argue that what happened in Southport would not have been of the same magnitude had the truth been told and told very, very quickly. It wasn’t for many hours.”
Despite accusations that he helped to fuel the riots with his video, he said: “I’ve always been 1,000 miles away from far-right conspiracy theorists.”
Reform’s press conference also played into a wider conspiracy theory pushed by those on the right, which claims that there is “two-tier policing and two-tier justice” in the UK.
It suggests right-wing protesters, like those who rioted in August, face a more severe punishment from authorities than left-wing demonstrators, like those who go on the pro-Palestine marches.