The Conservatives have been accused of stoki anti-migrant rhetoric – now used by the far-right extremists – after one of their more provocative election campaign videos resurfaced.
A wave of unrest has rocked the UK in the last week, fuelled by social media misinformation over the Southport stabbings.
False claims that the suspect was an asylum seeker acted as a catalyst for the far-right groups, who then began rioting all over the country.
As the government continues to grapple with this emerging crisis and minorities grow increasingly fearful of persecution, people are looking for an explanation for this sudden explosion of violence.
Many are pointing the finger at the Conservatives and their divisive rhetoric towards the migrant crisis.
The Tories ramped up their core messaging during their six-week election campaign only earlier this summer.
They claimed Labour would allow even more migrants to arrive via small boats, because they were scrapping the supposed deterrent of the Rwanda deportation scheme.
One Conservative campaign video in particular, released on X on June 20, shows a red carpet and a large “Welcome” sign on a British beach ahead of the arrival of a migrant boat.
The caption reads: “Don’t wake up to this on 5th July.”
And, after a week of riots, people on social media began to pull out these clips from June – and subsequently blamed the Tories for sending such a message.
This is far from the only provocative, anti-migrant moment from the Tories in recent years.
Tory shadow cabinet minister Lord Byron Davies claimed the anti-immigration riots are “politically justified” only earlier this week, before later apologising.
Former Tory home secretary Suella Braverman once referred to the arrival of asylum seekers to British shores as an “invasion”, said it was her “dream” to see the plane deporting migrants to Africa and claimed multiculturalism in the UK had failed.
Meanwhile, former PM Rishi Sunak made “stopping the small boats” one of his five priorities for leading the country.
That slogan has now become one of those used by the far-right during their violence demonstrations, according to the Hope Not Hate charity.