A sinister banner threatening Tories was displayed close to where the Conservative Party conference is taking place.

Boris Johnson, his cabinet and MPs, as well as rank and file members, are gathering in Manchester city centre for a four-day event.

A huge policing operation is under way with protesters backing various causes already descending on the North West.

A message referencing the fatal 1984 bombing of the party’s conference in Brighton was placed in a Salford park about a mile-and-a-half away from where senior government figures are meeting.

The words painted on the banner read ‘remember, we only have to be lucky once’.

The quotation is taken from a statement issued by the IRA in the aftermath of the attack.

Five people lost their lives but it failed to kill then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher or any cabinet minister.

Dozens more were seriously injured or left with life-long disabilities when a planted bomb on a long-delay timer ripped apart the Grand Hotel.

Greater Manchester Police told Metro.co.uk the banner has now been taken down.

After the Brighton blast, the militant group issued this threat: ‘Mrs Thatcher will now realise that Britain cannot occupy our country and torture our prisoners and shoot our people in their own streets and get away with it. 

‘Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no more war.’

It’s not the first time dark messages have been publicly displayed in Salford to coincide with the conference, which is often held in nearby Manchester.

In 2019, two efigies were hung from a bridge with the message ‘130,000 killed under Tory rule, time to level the playing field’. In 2017, a similar display simply read ‘hang the Tories’.

A massive 24 hour security operation dubbed the ‘ring of steel’ is in place across the city centre.

Residents of the city have been told to expect to see a heightened police presence on the street during ‘Operation Protector’.

Earlier this week a senior Greater Manchester Police officer said ‘we do expect a number of protesters to visit the city’, with some already under way.

Assistant chief constable Wasim Chaudhry added: ‘As with many events like this, emotions can run high and while everyone has the right to peacefully protest, anyone behaving in a manner which is done to threaten or intimidate others or crosses into committing criminal offences will be dealt with appropriately.’

A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said: ‘The banner has been removed, and the policing operation of the conference continues to run smoothly.’

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