Andy Burnham condemns “utterly vile” banner greeting Tories ahead of Manchester conference

The mayor of Greater Manchester has condemned an “unacceptable” banner which threatened Tories as they arrived in the city for their party conference.

The banner said “130,000 killed under Tory rule, time to level the playing field”.

Andy Burnham, a former Labour cabinet minister and now mayor of Greater Manchester, said the sign was “completely unacceptable” and was being removed.

Tory councillor Kerry Boyd spotted the offensive sign in Manchester as she went for a pre-conference run.

She said on Twitter: “Does this classify as death/terrorist threat? Utterly vile.”

Ms Boyd is a councillor on Thanet District Council in Kent.

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.