Labour has apologised after posting cartoons depicting Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Matt Hancock with blood on their hands for PPE failures.
The shocking paintings appeared on the Havant Labour page after being posted to Facebook by the social media officer for the party at the weekend.
They show the Prime Minister, Cabinet Office Minister and Health Secretary all appearing to be clapping for carers with bloody hands.
Havant Labour denounced the Johnson government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, which they said they had ‘completely mismanaged’.
The post said: ‘Highest death rate in Europe, lack of PPE (resulting in charities and schools making PPE for the NHS), and now the farcical “easing” of lockdown.
‘Boris Johnson and the Tories have blood on their hands. Stay home, stay safe.’
After it was condemned as ‘disgusting’ and ‘disgraceful’, Havant Labour removed the post – but not before slamming ‘snowflake’ social media users.
Labour has apologised after posting cartoons depicting Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Matt Hancock with blood on their hands on a local Facebook page
‘And I thought the Left were meant to be the “snowflakes”‘, one post read, ‘seems a few on the Right cannot handle some pictures – or some home truth’.
This was revised five times in one hour, Facebook screenshots show, before the group stopped complaining and apologised in full.
‘We apologise for the post, it has been taken down and that kind of thing will never happen again. We apologise for any offence caused,’ they said.
Havant Labour appears to have deleted its Twitter and Facebook accounts since.
It had condemned ‘scoring party political points’ on April 6, when Mr Johnson was moved to intensive care with suspected coronavirus.
MailOnline has contacted Labour for comment.
The images of Mr Gove, Mr Johnson and Mr Hancock were created by Wefail. Photos of the paintings were originally posted on its social media and website.
Commenting on the Labour Facebook furore, Wefail posted on its own Facebook page, saying: ‘”Disgraceful art”, what’s really disgraceful is having the highest death rate in Europe, by choice’ and adding on Twitter, ‘never apologise for my art’.
A one-off A2 painting combining all three politicians is being auctioned on eBay, with proceeds going to homeless charity Crisis. Bidding today stood at £1,131.11.
Wefail is selling limited edition A2 prints of the paintings of each individual politician at £95 each. The website states: ‘Wefail paints monsters and ships worldwide’.
The painting of Mr Hancock, entitled Clap !, was posted on its Facebook page on April 21, Mr Johnson (Clap 2!) appeared on April 24 and Mr Gove (Clap 3!) May 2.
Havant Labour doubled-down on the post before removing it and apologising – though even their apology took several attempts (pictured, Facebook posts)
Conservative MP for Havant Alan Mak excoriated Havant Labour’s ‘political point scoring’, adding: ‘I’m glad after five attempts they were able to finally admit the post was wrong on every level and have apologised.’
Mr Mak, vice chairman of the Tory party, said: ‘I hope the individual responsible for this disgraceful post will be expelled from the Labour party.’
Former Labour electoral candidate Rosamund Knight said the man who wrote the post had initially believed it was satire and added: ‘It was a very, very naive mistake.’
However, she described the Tory reaction and their own reposting of the pictures on Twitter as an attempt to divert attention from its handling of the coronavirus crisis.
She said: ‘It feels like they’ve posted it to deflect from their inadequacies. They have made huge mistakes.’
Ms Knight said the person responsible for the post was ‘very, very upset’ about the reaction he had received, adding: ‘We were getting threats… saying “watch your back” – he was being called scum.’
A one-off A2 painting combining all three politicians is being auctioned on eBay, with proceeds going to homeless charity Crisis. Bidding today stood at £1,131.11
Tory MP Alan Mak (left) has criticised the post, while former Labour candidate Rosamund Knight (right) claimed the Tories are ‘diverting attention’ from their handling of the crisis
Reposting the images on Twitter, councillor Donna Jones – Tory group leader on Portsmouth City Council – wrote: ‘This post from the Labour Party makes me sad for sections of our society. It’s wrong #BeKind.’
She later said: ‘After I posted on my public social media a plea to “#bekind” Labour not only removed the image, they also issued an apology.
‘It’s one of the worst pieces of political propaganda I’ve even seen in this country.’
Tory councillor Terry Norton in Portsmouth described Labour’s post as ‘disgusting behaviour’ while fellow Tory councillor Scott Payter-Harris tweeted: ‘Utter disgrace.’
Cllr Benedict Swann added: ‘This is utterly contemptible from a neighbouring Labour association. Hate in its absolute vilest form.’
In response, Labour councillor Thomas Coles tweeted: ‘Imagine being more offended by a satirical artwork than a policy of systematic culling.’
Official figures show the UK death toll for coronavirus is more than 40,000 with 10,000 deaths in care homes.
The latest social media misstep comes after Tory councillor Lee Mason was suspended for baking a hot cross bun that appeared to have a Swastika on it.