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The mayor of Greater Manchester has condemned an "unacceptable" banner which threatened Tories as they arrived in the city for their party conference.

The banner said "130,000 killed under Tory rule, time to level the playing field".

Andy Burnham, a former Labour cabinet minister and now mayor of Greater Manchester, said the sign was "completely unacceptable" and was being removed.

Tory councillor Kerry Boyd spotted the offensive sign in Manchester as she went for a pre-conference run.

She said on Twitter: "Does this classify as death/terrorist threat? Utterly vile."

Ms Boyd is a councillor on Thanet District Council in Kent.

Another London councillor Gary Stevens, noted that it hardly fits with Labour’s ‘kinder, gentler politics’ slogan.

An image of the banner was tweeted out by Manchester Momentum, the pro-Corbyn wing of the city’s Labour party.

“Good morning @Conservatives. Welcome to Manchester," the post read.

The tweet was later deleted.

Nobody has, as yet, claimed responsibility for the sign.

It is the second Manchester conference in a row at which a banner with effigies has been hung in protest at the Tories gathering in the city.