Woman MP steps up security after threats

Labour's Jess Phillips has vowed to 'keep going' as an MP after being forced to ramp up security following death threats.
Jess PhillipsJess Phillips
Jess Phillips

Ms Phillips tweeted a picture showing a locksmith making the home she shares with her young children safer after facing fresh intimidation.

The MP has faced a stream of abuse on social media over recent months, including threats of rape on Twitter.

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Tweeting the photograph, she wrote: “Locksmith spending 6hrs to make my home safe. Think abt how my kids feel next time you mock up a picture of me dying.”

Conservative Nicholas Soames said he was “horrified” by the way the Birmingham Yardley MP was being treated.

In a message to Ms Phillips on Twitter, he said: “I am so horrified to hear of your grotesque treatment and pray all is well with you and your family.”

Many women MPs have faced vile abuse on social media, with some choosing to quit the cyber world to escape the vitriol.

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Labour’s leadership has come in for criticism over its handling of the issue, particularly threats and attacks made by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn.

But Richard Burgon, a key ally of the leader, said it was “not right” to demonise Labour members as bullies, misogynists and thugs.

In a blog for Labour List, he wrote: “The leader of the Labour Party has continued to make clear that he is - just as he was before he was elected as leader - opposed to protests outside MPs’ advice sessions for constituents and opposed to protests outside MPs’ constituency offices.

“People considering such protests need to reflect upon the disruptive impact upon the provision of advice and assistance to constituents needing help and the impact upon constituency staff doing what is not an easy or sufficiently valued job.

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“But, at the same time, I am not - and others are not - going to stand by whilst hundreds of thousands of decent Labour members are dismissed and demonised as bullies, brick-throwers, misogynists and thugs. It’s just not right.”

The shadow justice secretary criticised the bullying behaviour of some MPs and said he had chosen not to draw attention to the attempts of a “tiny minority” of MPs to pressure him over his support for Mr Corbyn.

He went on: “I have been deeply shocked and saddened by the way a minority of my Parliamentary colleagues have treated Party members on Twitter, in person and at meetings.

“MPs deserve to be treated with respect but so do Labour members. As MPs we need to understand it’s not ‘all about us’.

“That’s why I haven’t been press-releasing the energetic but failed attempts by a tiny minority of MPs to bully and intimidate myself and other MPs who support the leader of the Labour Party.”