Turning Point UK said Tuesday that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer should resign because he “covered up the motivations behind” the killing of three young girls in Southport. That motivation appears now to be terrorism.

Senior members of the Conservative opposition are also demanding answers and action from Starmer about what he knew about the murders, the Daily Mail is reporting. Conservative leadership hopefuls Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch have both talked of “'serious questions” that need to be answered by Starmer. The Labour government is dismissing the controversy, calling it “simply despicable.”

The motivation of the accused killer, Axel Rudakubana, 18, is now being questioned. He is charged with stabbing three girls at a Taylor Swift dance academy but on Monday, police revealed that he was charged with producing a biological weapon, Ricin, and with possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.

At the time of Rudakubana’s arrest, police denied the incident had any relationship to terrorism and now they are denying that they withheld information from the public. The young man is already charged with the murders of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7 and Bebe King, 6, on July 29. He is also facing 10 additional charges of attempted murder and one of possessing a knife. The killings provoked riots by many who assumed Rudakubana was a recent or illegal immigrant. He did come from an immigrant family from Africa.

Former Immigration Minister Jenrick acknowledged Monday that public outrage over the alleged cover-up is growing. “The Government and authorities told us for months they were not treating this as a terrorist incident,” he said, according to the Mail. “This atrocity was of immense public concern. The public had a right to know the truth straight away.”

“Any suggestion of a cover-up will permanently damage public trust in whether we're being told the truth about crime in our country. Keir Starmer must urgently explain to the country what he knew about the Southport attack and when he learned it.”