fentanyl

They had been murdered by 35-year-old Luke D'Wit, a family friend who had laced their medication with the opioid painkiller fentanyl after using fake identities to manipulate them.

Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday 2023, he made sure Mr and Mrs Baxter consumed a fatal dose of fentanyl disguised in a "liver cleanse" smoothie.

He used fentanyl prescribed to his late father, Vernon, to poison the Baxters - with the drug found in abundance at the home he shared with his mother in Churchfields, West Mersea.

The Conservative leader has focused more on voters disaffected by what he calls a "Lost Liberal decade", promising change from a government he blames for the housing shortage and a sluggish economy, and for mishandling social issues like crime and the fentanyl crisis.

"This is just a small example of what China has done to the USA, for years," he added, before repeating accusations that synthetic opioid fentanyl "continues to pour into our country from China, through Mexico and Canada, killing hundreds of thousands of our people".