James Cleverly has accused Nigel Farage of spreading “gossip and rumour” following the killing of three young girls in Southport.
The Reform UK leader posted a video shortly after the murders suggesting “the truth is being withheld from us” by the police.
He also repeated false claims that the alleged killer was being watched by the security services.
A vigil for the victims, who were all under 10 years old, later descended into violence, sparking far-right riots throughout the country.
Farage has since admitted that he was repeating false claims made on social media by, among others, Andrew Tate.
He has defended his actions by insisting he was only trying to find out “the truth”.
On Times Radio this morning, Cleverly, who is running to be Tory leader, said Farage “needs to decide is he a politician or is a social media content creator”.
He said: “I think some of the things that he has framed as questions are clearly designed to generate traffic, generate digital content, and he needs to decide is he a politician or is a social media content creator because there is a friction between those two functions.
“As politicians, we have a duty to think very very carefully about what we do and very very carefully about what we say. What we must do is not intentionally reinforce gossip and rumour, particularly if it has serious real world implications.
“The question that he will need to ask himself and perhaps others as well is do you believe parliament is an important institution where serious decisions are made and the country is governed or is it just part of a PR operation for clicks and likes and monetised content.
“That is the question I would pose to anybody and everybody when commenting about very sensitive issues like the brutal murder of those little girls in Southport.”
Another Tory leadership candidate, Mel Stride, has also attacked Farage’s response to the Southport killings.
He told Sky News: “His suggestion that the police might not have been telling the truth about that situation, I think helped fuel conspiracy theories around what was happening [and] was deeply unhelpful.”