Conservative Party campaign group RoadTrip2015 has been criticised after posting a Facebook status mentioning the Paris terror attacks as a reason for activists to get the party’s candidates elected.
The group said: “The news from Paris has confirmed that now more than ever we must continue to campaign, continue to fight to get our people elected, so that we can stand up and defend the freedom of speech and expression that we all desire.”
The post added: “Freedom isn’t free, and the employees of Charlie Hebdo yesterday paid the ultimate sacrifice for standing up for what they believed in. We must not let this go to waste, but continue to carry their mantle, stop living on our knees and be prepared to die on our feet. We are all Charlie.”
The campaign group has mobilised large numbers of young activists to canvass and deliver leaflets for the party in by-elections and in important marginal seats, and is now seen as a key part in the Conservative Party’s strategy for May’s General Election.
However, the post drew angry responses from activists, with one writing: “Are you seriously using a massacre to motivate people to support a partisan political campaign? This is absolutely shameless.”
“However damaging Labour’s economic policies might be, to imply that they would subject the press to Islamofascist censorship is to do our political opponents a great disservice. Charlie Hebdo was a left-wing magazine, after all…”
Another added: “Incredibly bad taste”.
The message has now been taken down, but was picked up by political blog Guido Fawkes.
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