Nigel Farage has been described as a “master of the conspiracy theory” by the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, after he tried to link events at RAF Fairford to small boat crossings.
The Reform UK leader was criticised over his reaction to the arrests of the men on Sunday, when he said he had been warning for months about “Iranian agents” coming into the UK across the Channel in small boats.
“We deserve to be told the truth about the Fairford bomb plotters’ identities,” he added in his post on X on Sunday.
On Monday he posted a video in which he claimed to have received intelligence that the Iranian regime was using the small boats “to get their operatives into Britain”.
Less than an hour later, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) said that the five suspects were all British nationals.
The men – three residents of Westminster and two others from Camden and Willesden, all London boroughs – have since been released on bail while the police investigate “multiple lines of inquiry”.
Nandy told the Guardian at Labour party conference on Monday that Farage was a “master of the conspiracy theory” when asked about his comments. “I think that he’s good at using the very real sentiment that a lot of people feel, of anxiety and distrust,” she added.
“Particularly in this era of mis- and disinformation, I think he’s very agile at exploiting that for political gain.”
Defending the authorities’ not having immediately released identity details of the suspects, Nandy said the first job of the government was to reassure the public that they were taking the right steps to keep them safe, which sometimes means “withholding information where it is in the public interest”.
“More information is usually better than not,” she added, but it was “not always a conspiracy” when it was held back.
Police involved in the investigation have also appealed for patience, without the pressure from speculation, while they conduct their inquiries.
CTP senior national coordinator, deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans, said in an update: “I am very aware of the levels of speculation about the motivation behind this incident, and the geopolitical questions that are being raised. However, I ask that at this time, Counter Terrorism Policing are given the space to work carefully and clearly.”
Farage was also accused of “irresponsible nonsense” by Jenny Jones, a Green Party peer, who said: “Once again Farage’s attempts to whip up division by scapegoating some of the world’s most vulnerable people has left him with egg on his face.”
Speaking after the police said that the suspects were British nationals, Farage denied any suggestion it had been irresponsible speculate about the incident while the government was carefully calibrating its responses to the security operation in Gloucestershire.
“I have been saying it for years. I didn’t say anything different yesterday. What I have been saying for years and saying all summer, our national security is threatened from the outside by weakness on borders like it has never been before,” he told Sky News.
Other Reform UK MPs including Robert Jenrick and Richard Tice also rushed to try to link the RAF Fairford incident to small boat crossings.
Jenrick said that “we may now be seeing the consequences” of “complacency” by the Home Office after he had previously said terrorist were using small boats to enter the UK.
Later on Monday, Tice shared an X post by his partner Isabel Oakeshott, who said UK law recognised six types of British nationality and that asking for the suspects’ “countries of origin” was among “perfectly reasonable questions”.
The Reform deputy leader added: “Ethnicity? Dual nationals? Asylum seekers? Previous convictions? Known to Prevent / Authorities? Benefits claimants? Living in social housing?”
