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Cleverly defends Tory mayor candidate following racism allegations

James Cleverly has come out to bat for the Conservative candidate for London mayor after campaign group HOPE not hate uncovered what it describes as her “racist social media history”.

The foreign secretary said Susan Hall is “like most of us in the Conservative Party” when it was put to him on Laura Kuensberg’s Sunday politics show.

According to HOPE not hate, Hall has liked tweets praising Enoch Powell in the past and others that described Sadiq Khan as a “traitor rat”.

She liked an image of the notorious anti-immigration politician, a favourite of the far-right, which quoted him saying: “It’s never too late to save your country.”

The tweet liked by the Tory hopeful bore the message: “It’s never too late to get London back!”

The slogan by Powell – infamous for his “rivers of blood” speech which condemned immigration to Britain – was used by the British National Party (BNP).

Here’s Cleverly defending her on the matter:

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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.

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