Boris Johnson has been accused of stoking "the politics of division and nationalism" after Conservative election strategists urged their candidates to tell voters the Liberal Democrats “are not proud to be British” and would “make our country more vulnerable to terrorist attacks”.



The inflammatory attack lines are contained in an internal opposition research document sent by Conservative headquarters this weekend to Tory candidates who are contesting seats where the main rival is a Liberal Democrat.

The particularly hostile nature of the document obtained by BuzzFeed News reveals how the Tories are planning to use cultural and personal issues to go after their opponents during their election campaign over the next six weeks.

The Conservative party is under pressure from Liberal Democrat challengers in a host of Remain-voting seats across the country. Five former Tory MPs have defected to the Lib Dems in recent weeks, and internal Tory polling has shown that several incumbent Leave-supporting Conservative MPs are likely to lose their seats to the anti-Brexit party.

In a sign that the Tories will be employing an increasingly aggressive strategy to try to hold onto these seats, their private briefing note laying out the “lines to take” for Tory candidates in Lib Dem marginals is headed: “The Liberal Democrats don’t share people’s values."

“The Liberal Democrats are not proud to be British — and want to scrap the promotion of ‘British values,” it alleges, claiming: “The Liberal Democrats are out of touch with the British people.”