A Left-leaning feminist website paid “witches” to curse Charlie Kirk for an article published days before he was assassinated.

Editors of the Jezebel site were forced into an awkward clarification after Mr Kirk, a Right-wing political activist, was shot dead at an event on a Utah university campus.

Within hours, the killing had been heavily politicised. Donald Trump, the US president, blamed the “radical Left” for the shooting in an address from the White House, while Nancy Mace, a Republican congresswoman, said Democrats needed to “own” the killing.