While foreign agitators and far-right leaders leapt upon false claims the Southport attack suspect was an immigrant who had arrived in a small boat, the allegations can be traced to social media accounts closer to home.
The woman accused of being first to post a false Muslim name for the suspect is the managing director of a clothing company. The mother of three in her mid-fifties enjoys walking, is married to an artist and counts an actor among her children. The family live in a £1.5 million farmhouse in the rural north.
She posted on Twitter/X that “Ali Al-Shakati” was the suspect, he was an “asylum seeker who came to the UK by boat last year” and was on an “MI6 watch list”.
It didn’t destroy her enough. Name and shame would be appropriate, so here’s hoping she’s charged with something.