Young Tory activists caught discussing 'gassing chavs' and 'shooting peasants' in leaked WhatsApp group

Members discussed 'chavocide' and conducting 'experiments to see why they breed so much despite living rough'

A new Conservative youth group was widely ridiculed for its use of social media (Getty)

Young Conservative activists joked about “gassing chavs” and “shooting peasants” in a string of disturbing WhatsApp messages.

The conversation, which has now been leaked, took place in a group chat described as a “professional discussion board” for activists communicating about how to help the Tories win the next election.

The revelation comes as a new Tory-supporting youth group, called Activate, was launched to try to engage young people in politics in a similar way to Momentum, the left-wing Labour campaign organisation. However, the group’s social media launch was widely ridiculed for its overuse of hashtags and memes.

Guido Fawkes, which published the leaked messages, said the WhatsApp group was used as a “precursor” to the Activate group.

During the conversation, one member refers to an event as a “fine opportunity to observe the spice homo chav”.

Another immediately replies: “And gas them all.”

The first activist then jokes that he or she is “gonna run some medical experiments on them” before the second adds: “We could use them as substitutes for animals when testing.”

As the conversation continues, the pair make a string of further offensive comments about poor people.

The first suggests “experiments” could be conducted “to see why they are so good at producing despite living rough”.

Realising the direction the chat has taken, he adds: “Okay we gotta be careful otherwise this is turning [in]to a Nazi chat."

Undeterred, the second person continues: “Vermin often populate at high rates…But seriously, chavs are an actual problem”.

As other young Tory activists join in the troubling conversation, talk turns to “solutions” for dealing with “chavs”.

Suggestions include “chavocide”, “turn the Isle of Wight into a super prison”, “shooting peasants” and “compulsory birth control on chavs”.

The back-and-forth is only stopped when one member tells his allies: “We don’t take the mickey out of the poor.” Another threatens to kick people out of the group “if this continues”.

A third then adds: “This is supposed to be a professional discussion board about how we coordinate for the next election. It is not a place to gossip or make rather silly jokes.”

With impressive foresight, he or she then suggests the “dodgy chatter in here” could end up on the Guido Fawkes blog, damaging the group and its objectives.

Responding to the leak, an Activate spokesperson told The Independent: “None of the people included in those messages currently have any seniority with the organisation. We are working on ensuring that the people in question are removed from the group as a whole, if still members. They were banned from the WhatsApp group in question when comments like this were made.

“The comments were sickening and are totally incompatible with what Activate is trying to achieve. We apologise for any offence that has been caused by the people in question. And stress our commitment to open discussion about the future of our party and country.”

None of those who made the offensive comments are on Activate’s national committee, the spokesperson added.

A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “Activate are in no way affiliated with the Conservative Party”.