A Tory activist has joked about putting Jeremy Corbyn’s head a “noose” during a speech by Boris Johnson at the party’s conference in Manchester.
The prime minister delivered an anti-Labour rallying cry at the drinks reception hosted by the DUP on Tuesday evening.
Johnson told the room of party activists they should “get ready together” to make Corbyn “step quietly into a figurative rocket and let us send him into orbit where he belongs”.
But as the PM made the comment one audience member shouted the Labour leader should be made to step into a figurative “noose”. Another shouted “traitors’ gate”. Johnson did not respond to either shout.
During his speech, the PM also agreed “yes it would” to a heckle that it would “be humbug” should Corbyn become prime minister.
Johnson triggered a fierce backlash after he told a Labour MP she was acting with “humbug” when she warned the ramping up of divisive rhetoric was endangering the lives of politicians and cited Jo Cox’s murder in 2016.
He was greeted by chants of “Boris! Boris!” as and “no surrender” he made the unadvertised appearance on stage.
The PM has also come under fire for branding the law passed by MPs to prevent a no-deal Brexit the “Surrender Act”.
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg has defended the term, telling a conference fringe event that the language used by his party was nothing compared to comments made by Labour MPs and supporters.
“Surrender Bill does not lead to people being murdered, saying a member of Parliament should be lynched is much more likely to lead to people being murdered,” he said. “The language of the hard left is appalling.”
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has been criticised for repeating a call for the then work and pensions secretary, Esther McVey, to be subject to a “lynching”.
Johnson used his speech on Tuesday evening to claim having made “huge progress” on a Brexit deal and said he hopes to “get there” in the “next few days”.
He thanked the DUP for working to “get a new deal and a better way” out of the EU. “I’m not going to pretend this is going to be easy, this is not a walk in the park,” he added.