Tory peer accepts party’s Stop The Boats slogan fuelled far right riots

An ex-immigration minister has warned the Tory party’s “Stop The Boats” slogan fuelled the violent far right riots that erupted across the UK last month.

Lord Timothy Kirkhope, the Conservative Party's former immigration minister, argued discussions about migrants had fostered a climate of hostility towards refugees ahead of August’s violent unrest.

He told the BBC that the “Stop the boats” rhetoric had inadvertently whipped up “emotionally” charged sentiment and had been hijacked by those “in support of more extreme views and activities”.

It comes after rioters attacked mosques, ambushed riot police, set fire to a hotel housing migrants and torched a public library and Citizens Advice Bureau building in the aftermath of the fatal stabbing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport at the end of July.

There were multiple incidents of ethnic minorities being attacked on the streets. In the aftermath of the Southport stabbing, false information spread rapidly online claiming the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker who came to the UK on a small boat crossing.

A banner featuring the words Stop the boats, which was also adopted by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a press conference last year, was seen in front of a hotel home to asylum seekers amid the violent unrest which exploded in Hull on 3 August.

Lord Kirkhope said: “All of us - whatever our political complexion - Labour, Conservative or whatever - wish to see an end to those boats.

“But I regret very much that sort of rhetoric which was uttered from time to time by the previous government and has been used by those who wanted to disrupt society and riot and cause all the problems that we have seen.”

The peer said he “condemned” the “Stop The Boats” slogan espoused by “politicians in my own party”.

Mr Sunak twice promised to "stop the boats" in his first major speech of last year. Referring to five key promises at both the start and the end of the speech, the former PM said both times: "We will halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and stop the boats."

It comes after leading campaign groups recently warned the UK’s failure to address institutional racism is to blame for the recent eruption of far-right violence on the streets.

A damning new report by prominent global human rights organisation Amnesty International and the UK’s leading racial justice think tank Runnymede Trust exposed a slew of troubling racial disparities.

A joint submission from the organisations to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination discovered that government legislation and policy infringes on key articles of the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – a UN treaty.

The Independent has contacted the Conservative Party for comment.