A leading figure in America's National Rifle Assocation has told a conservative conference that the "billions of people like George Soros [and] Michael Bloomberg" were funding a socialist takeover of the United States.

In an address to CPAC delegates, Wayne LaPierre, the NRA executive vice-president, said that whenever "this political disease rises to power... citizens are repressed, their freedoms are destroyed and their firearms are banned and confiscated". 

Media mogul Mr Bloomberg, a former New York Mayor, has been a strong advocate of gun control, which is back in the headlines following the deaths of 17 people in last week's Florida school shooting.

Another linked by Mr LaPierre to the alleged socialist takeover was Tom Steyer, a hedge fund trader who last year launched a movement to impeach President Trump. Although Jewish, Mr Steyer attends his wife's Episcopalian church.

Mr LaPierre added that gun control activists would be proud of Saul Alinsky, who decades after his death, is cited by conservatives as a flag-bearer for radicalism. The Chicago-born Jewish community worker authored the 1971 book Rules for Radicals and is credited as the founder of community organising.