Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf has accused authorities of maintaining a "two-tiered attitude" in their handling of the Southport killer who was referred to the Prevent programme three times before committing murder.
Speaking to GB News, Yusuf claimed there has been an attempt to give "differential treatment" to certain people based on "immutable characteristics and certain faiths".
The criticism comes after it emerged that Axel Rudakubana had multiple contacts with authorities before killing three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
Yusuf drew parallels with the Manchester Arena bombing, citing a security guard's testimony of failing to stop the bomber due to fears of being labelled racist.
Zia Yusuf has accused authorities of maintaining a "two-tiered attitude"
GB News
He argued that the "catastrophic number of people coming here, both legally and illegally" and "the failure of people to assimilate effectively" had contributed to the situation.
He told GB News: "I don't think there is any doubt that if you are an objective observer of the facts, unfortunately, there has been an attempt consistently under this Labour Government to ensure that this sort of two-tier attitude that occurs where certain people with certain immutable characteristics and certain faiths are basically given differential treatment by authorities. This has consequences."
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He added: "My sense of what has happened, and this is shared by the leadership of our party, is that the catastrophic number of people coming here, both legally and illegally, and the failure of people to assimilate effectively and frankly, the proliferation of extremist ideology that has been allowed to proliferate by authorities.
"They would have been concerned that this was that had the identity and the details of this attack have been known, that it would have caused civil unrest.
"Now, the irony, of course, is by leaving a vacuum, about the fact he had downloaded Al Qaeda materials caused the civil unrest."
The comments follow confirmation from the judge that while the attack did not meet the legal definition of terrorism, Rudakubana's "culpability for this extreme level of violence is equivalent in its seriousness to terrorist murders".
The killer was referred to the government's Prevent anti-extremism scheme three times
PAThe 18-year-old Rudakubana was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in prison on Thursday for murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.
The sentence is the second-longest tariff on record in English history, following only Manchester Arena bomber's brother Hashem Abedi's 55-year term.
Before the attack, Rudakubana had been in contact with police, courts, youth justice system, social services and mental health services.
He was also convicted of attempted murder of eight other children, possessing a knife, producing ricin, and holding information likely useful for terrorism.
The killer was referred to the Government's Prevent anti-extremism scheme three times due to his fixation with violence.
Downing Street has stated that ministers cannot impose a whole life order (WLO) on Rudakubana due to international law constraints.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said the Government "shares the public's disgust" at the crimes but is prevented from harsher sentencing by UN regulations.
Article 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits life imprisonment without release possibility for offenders under 18.
