The Conservative Party denied links to a racist Twitter account. Now we know they lied [IMAGES]

After the @DigitalTories Twitter account featured a racist attack on Labour front bencher Diane Abbott, we asked the party if the account was linked them in any way. The Conservatives gave an on-the-record answer that it was not. Now we know this is untrue. The account was linked to and promoted by Harrow Conservatives.

The tweet 

On Thursday 3 August, the account posted an openly racist tweet about Labour’s Diane Abbott. The account then deleted the tweet in the hope that no one had noticed. But it was too late:

Quick thinking to change it for an innocuous pic & then pin… but no. Here's your original tweet. Own it. pic.twitter.com/0KBUe9Y9nP

— Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) August 3, 2017

Water melons are a common racist trope used against people of colour. It is an import from the US, as William Black writes for The Atlantic:

The trope came into full force when slaves won their emancipation during the Civil War. Free black people grew, ate, and sold watermelons, and in doing so made the fruit a symbol of their freedom. Southern whites, threatened by blacks’ newfound freedom, responded by making the fruit a symbol of black people’s perceived uncleanliness, laziness, childishness, and unwanted public presence.

The creation of people of colour as watermelon-munching dim apes is now well established in the UK too. Conservative Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has written of the “watermelon smiles” of African people. And anyone in doubt should read the first reply Digital Tories received for the tweet:

https://twitter.com/Pete_Evans12/status/893115940040323072

This level of racist abuse is nothing new for Abbott. The Labour MP has endured ceaseless racial hostility since becoming Britain’s first black woman MP in 1987. Last December, a Conservative Party official shared a tweet of a fat ape wearing lip stick, captioned “Get the Diane Abbott look”. He added his own comment to the post, stating:

Nice lips kid. But a shade too much rouge.

And the simplest internet search will reveal a treasure trove of racist taunts aimed at the Hackney MP.

Gone in 24 hours

The Digital Tories account clearly spotted it was in trouble. First, it deleted the tweet – but it was already screengrabbed. Then, it made its tweets private:

@DigitalTories panicking…. Tweets are now private

— HarajukuJuju #3point5percent (@davewilsonuk) August 3, 2017

And finally, early on the morning of Friday 4 July, the account vanished. Soon to be replaced with this:

Twitter users continued to share their anger at the behaviour of Digital Tories, regardless:

Clear racism as well as offensive generally. Presumably legal action will follow?

— Dominic McHugh (@dommac1972) August 4, 2017

You should pass this to the Police. It is evidence of a hate crime.

— Carto Crazy aka Jeff Owen, Swindon #Rejoiner Woke (@MapdraughterUK) August 3, 2017

The denial versus the evidence

In an email to The Canary, the Conservative Party denied any association to the Twitter account:

But further investigation revealed that the Twitter account was linked to and promoted by Harrow Conservatives.

Like the Twitter account the page was removed on Friday 4 August. But as Skwawkbox reports, an archived version can be viewed for posterity here.

The Conservative Party and its press have been quick to associate the ravings of lone anonymous Twitter accounts to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Yet, when an account linked to its own officials launches a racist attack on a Labour MP? *crickets.

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Featured image via Wikimedia Commons