Canadian Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has labelled those who support the UK leaving the EU as “alt-right” in a new attack against his Conservative Party rival.

Mr Trudeau wrote that the Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer was bringing “far-right” rhetoric into the ongoing Canadian election campaign. The Canadian prime minister listed several topics he claimed were supported or opposed by both the Tories and the “alt-right”.

“Andrew Scheer is bringing far-right, American-style politics north this election season, and he must be stopped,” Trudeau wrote above the picture that listed five topics: climate change, Brexit, abortion, same-sex marriage, and immigration.

According to Mr Trudeau, supporters of Brexit, such as the Canadian Conservatives, are in line with the American alt-right. The alt-right is a loose connection of predominantly American white ethno-nationalists. They gained infamy during the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” event in 2017 that led to violence and the murder of left-wing activist Heather Heyer.

The comparison with the alt-right, who are often described by the media and others as avowed racists, comes only weeks after Mr Trudeau himself was mired in a racism scandal. It emerged he had put on blackface in at least three occasions in the past which were caught on film or photographed.

Watching Blackface Enthusiast Justin Trudeau squirm is SO cringeworthy… https://t.co/6sDUw7gQcE — Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 8, 2019

When confronted about his seeming habit of wearing blackface and asked how many times he had darkened his skin, Trudeau could not answer. He said: “I am weary of being definitive about this because the recent pictures that came out, I had not remembered.”

Trudeau is not the first person to describe the 17.4 million Brexit voters as “racists”. Many left-wing publications have also claimed that the Brexit vote has led to a surge in racist incidents and attacks on minorities.

Earlier this week, during the English-language leaders’ debate, the Canadian Tory leader Andrew Scheer had a chance to hit back at Trudeau directly. Mr Scheer said: “What is very dangerous is when you have a prime minister like Justin Trudeau who uses legitimate issues like racism and hateful language to demonise anyone who disagrees with him.”

“Calling people un-Canadian for disagreeing with his failure on the border does more to create division,” he added, likely in reference to an incident involving a woman in Quebec in August 2018.

Diane Blain, the woman called out as racist by Trudeau, has since filed a $90,000 lawsuit against Trudeau for “psychological distress and damage to her reputation and her right to freedom of expression”, according to the National Post.