Britain’s terrorism watchdog said that the information provided to the public following the mass stabbing at a children’s dance party in Southport last year was “inadequate”, in an apparent acknowledgement of criticisms levied by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

The UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, has told the BBC that the lack of details released by the police in the wake of the mass stabbing committed by second-generation Rwandan migrant Axel Rudakubana that left three young British girls dead had fuelled widespread speculation on social media, which many credit as having sparked the anti-mass migration protests and riots that ensued in the following days

“People got the sense that something was being withheld or fudged in some way, and that led the social media types who wanted to spread disinformation to spread disinformation,” the terror watchdog said.

In the immediate aftermath of the stabbing, police merely said that the attacker was “a 17-year-old male from Banks in Lancashire, who is originally from Cardiff”.

Following speculation on social media that the attacker had been an illegal Muslim migrant who had been on a terror watch list, police later said that the attacker had been born in Wales and that the case was not being treated as a terror attack.

“The public could have been told immediately that there had been an attack by a 17-year-old male who was black, British, born in Wales and has lived in the UK all his life,” Hall said.

Authorities also withheld information for months indicating a possible terror motivation behind the attack. Early searches of Rudakubana’s address turned up an al-Qaeda jihadist manual and the bioweapon ricin, yet this and the decision to charge him under terrorism legislation was withheld from the public, despite police and political leaders knowing about it.

It was also later revealed that the would-be attacker had several interactions with police, including for possessing a knife, even though he was never charged. Rudakubana was also referred to the anti-terror Prevent programme three times; however, they dismissed him as a potential threat each time.

For demanding police reveal more information in the immediate aftermath of the attack to quell speculation and violence, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was accused of stoking the riots and of spreading “conspiracy theories” for questioning if the attacker had been known as a potential terror threat.

After it was revealed that Prevent had failed to prevent the attack and that authorities had withheld the information from the public, Mr Farage accused the government of conducting “one of the biggest coverups” in his lifetime.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer later admitted that he was made aware of the developments “as they were emerging” but claimed that he kept them from the public to avoid influencing the trial against Rudakubana. In the wake of the attack and the ensuing riots, there have been growing calls for changes to the overly restrictive interpretation now favoured over Britain’s restrictive court reporting rules to provide the public with more information.

Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations within the Metropolitan Police Matt Jukes said: “We’re operating a criminal justice system which, in order to protect the courtroom, really locks down information about investigations when they’re underway.

“But I should also be clear it’s a system which, in my view, was built for a different age and I’m absolutely certain that we need to find ways of saying more about those investigations.”