Tory MPs opened a new battle in their civil war over immigration last night with a row over an x-rated social media advert featuring a BBC presenter giving viewers the middle finger.
Moderates demanded the removal of a post on X using an image of BBC World chief presenter Maryam Moshiri to accuse Labour of having no credible plan to cut migration.
It comes at a time when the Conservative Party is itself being torn apart by its own failure to stop small boats crossing the channel, or deport occupants to Rwanda.
The post from the Conservatives captioned the image of Ms Moshiri ‘flipping the bird’ as: ‘Labour when you ask for their plans to tackle illegal migration.’
It was shared approvingly by some Tories including former minister Jonathan Gullis, who got into a spat with Tory peer Lord Barwell over it.
It also attracted criticism from senior Tory MPs, including Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Tobias Ellwood, the former defence minister.
Ms Kearns, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, posted: ‘Amazed this has not – despite requests – been taken down, it is beneath us.’
Mr Ellwood also posted: ‘Please delete this post.’
It was shared approvingly by some Tories including former minister Jonathan Gullis, who got into a spat with Tory peer Lord Barwell over it.
It also attracted criticism from senior Tory MPs, including Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Tobias Ellwood, the former defence minister.
Newly-appointed legal migration minister Tom Pursglove defended his party on Friday.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I’ve not spent an awful amount of time on Twitter in the last 24 hours as you’ll imagine, having just been appointed yesterday and trying to immerse myself in all of the detail.
‘But the bottom line is it does highlight the fact that the Labour Party doesn’t have a credible alternative.
‘I’m sure that Alicia and other colleagues will have fed in their views to central office and the party chairman.’
In viral footage Ms Moshiri can be seen raising her eyebrows and flipping off the camera as she comes on-screen after the programme’s famous musical countdown ends.
Ms Moshiri, 46, one of the network’s chief presenters, seems to quickly realise she is live and snatches her hand away before beginning to read out the headlines about Boris Johnson.
‘Live from London, this is BBC News,’ she says, having swiftly adopted a more serious demeanour.
Yesterday she issued an apology on social media saying she ‘did not realise’ the moment would be caught on camera and she is ‘sorry if I offended or upset anyone’.
Ms Moshiri said: ‘Hey everyone, yesterday just before the top of the hour I was joking around a bit with the team in the gallery.
‘I was pretending to count down as the director was counting me down from 10-0… including the fingers to show the number.
‘So from 10 fingers held up to one. When we got to 1 I turned finger around as a joke and did not realise that this would be caught on camera.
‘It was a private joke with the team and I’m so sorry it went out on air! It was not my intention for this to happen and I’m sorry if I offended or upset anyone.
‘I wasn’t ‘flipping the bird’ at viewers or even a person really. It was a silly joke that was meant for a small number of my mates.’
However in a sign she may have realised her hand gesture was aired, she fluffed the end of the headline, referring to the ‘coronaverse’ pandemic.