Nigel Farage's comments about the Southport attacker put police officers in danger because they contributed to the riots, one of the contenders to be the next Conservative leader has said.
Mel Stride ruled out any deal with Farage to restore his party's fortunes after last month's election landslide.
Stride also said that if he were to replace Rishi Sunak as party leader he would commit to cutting net immigration to tens of thousands of people a year.
Farage was criticised for a post on his X account in the aftermath of the killings of three young children in Southport and before riots stared, when he questioning the accuracy of the police's assessment that the attack was not terror related.
Mel Stride appeared on Chopper's Political Podcast
GB News
Farage said in a video he posted on X: "I wonder whether the truth is being held from us, I don't know."
In an interview with GB News' podcast Chopper's Political Podcast, Stride said that these remarks were "likely to lead to more police officers ending up getting in more trouble than they would otherwise."
Asked if Farage's remarks put the safety of police at risk, he added: "I think his remarks about the police not being truthful, potentially around what happened.
"Let me put it like this, were deeply unhelpful to those officers that were then having to go out and deal with the consequence of the rioting."
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Mel Stride said if he were to become the Tory leader he would commit to cutting net immigration to tens of thousands of people a year
GB News
Asked if he would let Farage could be a Tory member if he were to become leader, Stride said: "No, I made that very clear.
"Look Nigel Farage wants to destroy the Conservative Party. This is one of the things that he that he says reasonably frequently. There's no question of that."
In the interview Stride said he wanted to commit his party to cutting net immigration to tens of thousands a year, as then-Prime Minister David Cameron had first proposed in 2010.
Asked by presenter Christopher Hope if net migration be under 100,000 per year, Stride replied: "Almost certainly, we need to work that through with the parliamentary party. But yes that's the ball park."
Mel Stride said he would not allow Nigel Farage to become a Tory Party member if he were to be elected leader
PA
Stride, the rank outsider of the six Conservative MPs running to succeed Sunak as Tory leader, said he was coming up the on rails to win.
He said: "I'm in this to win it, I'm coming up on the rails. And this is a contest that is not yet concluded."
Yesterday Tom Tugendhat, a rival of Stride for the centre ground of the Tory party, said he would not allow Farage to join and would not work with Reform UK in Parliament if he became leader.
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