The Prime Minister has warned that senior politicians could either support or undermine police work on the Southport case, amid accusations of a cover-up of 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 the criminal trial is ongoing.

Questions were put to the Government after senior figures knew that new charges would be brought against the alleged attacker Axel Rudakubana, who is accused of murder and attempted murder, as well as possession of ricin and Al Qaeda documents.

Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, candidates for the next Tory leader, have asked publicly why this information was not made public earlier.

The Prime Minister said: “We all have a choice to make in this House – including whether either candidate is the next Tory leader – they can either support the police in their tough job, or they can weaken the police in their tough job. And I know which side I’m on.”

Previously, Mr Jenrick claimed the State was “lying” to the public.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I want to know when the Prime Minister found out: we don’t know that information, we don’t know what the police advice was in this case and we don’t know why. The police chose not to say this.

“The effect of this has been to create speculation over the summer and to lose confidence in the police and the criminal justice process, and I think that is wrong.

“The state should not lie to its own citizens”

Asked if he believed the state was actually lying, he said: “We don’t know. We don’t know why this information was hidden. Why did it take the police months to establish basic facts about this incident that it was reasonable to believe were known hours or days after this incident occurred?

Conservative rival Kemi Badenoch said there were “serious questions to be asked about the police, the CPS and also Keir Starmer’s response to the whole situation”.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, he added: “Parliament is the right place to make this happen.

“While we must abide by contempt of court rules and not prejudice this case, it is important that proper review is conducted.”

Rudakubana appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via video link on Wednesday, refusing to speak during the brief hearing and pulling his gray tracksuit down over his mouth and nose.

In addition to the two charges announced Tuesday, he is also charged with the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, who were stabbed during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Hart Street. Charges were also opened in Southport on July 29 for the attempted murder and possession of a knife of eight children, including trainer Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.

He will next appear at Liverpool Crown Court on November 13.

Jonathan Hall KC, an independent reviewer of terrorism law, called for the Government and police to be more open about criminal cases following the debate.

Mr Hall told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The government must and will be aware that if there is an information gap, particularly in the mainstream media, then there are other voices out there who will do that, particularly on social media.” Try filling it out.

“I always say to the Government – ​​and I say to the Government as I say to the police – that if you have information you can give, make it public and be really careful not to fall into that trap. The trap of saying, ‘We can’t say anything because there is a criminal case.’

“There’s a fair amount of information that could be made public, for the most part, and I think I’m detecting that the police are trying to do that.”

He told the broadcaster that the line between whether a violent attack carried out by a single person is terrorism is often “very thin”.

The most important test is whether the attack was motivated by an ideological, political, religious or racial purpose, Hall said.

“I’m afraid that just because someone carries out a major attack doesn’t mean they’re advancing a cause.

“There are situations where someone has Al-Qaeda material, someone has IRA material, someone has far-right material and sometimes when you look at someone’s devices all you can really say is ‘this sounds strange but it’s absolutely true. the individual is fascinated with violence’.”

The Crown Prosecution Service needed authorization from the Attorney General or Solicitor General, the government’s legal officers, to bring the ricin charge.

The BBC reported that senior figures in the government had been told in the last few weeks about the possibility of new charges in the Southport case.

Speaking to TalkTV, former prime minister Liz Truss said the material underlying the new charges would be found when the suspect’s home was searched “fairly soon” after the stabbing.

He said he found it “extraordinary” that the Prime Minister did not know and that it appeared the public had not been told the truth.

The day after the Southport attack, thousands of people gathered for a peaceful protest in the town, but a separate protest outside a mosque in the town later turned violent.

The following week, protests took place in dozens of towns and cities across the country, escalating into violence and riots, with asylum center hotels specifically targeted.

Since then, more than 1,000 people have been arrested and hundreds have been charged and imprisoned.

The provisional hearing date for Rudakubana has been set for January next year.