Email threat to football commentator Dan O'Hagan linked to House of Commons IP address

Dan O’Hagan, a freelance commentator and TV presenter who has worked for a number of outlets, received the email on Tuesday from someone calling themselves “David”.

The sender said they were “working very, very hard” to get Mr O’Hagan’s address, and said: “You cannot be allowed to belittle, mock, and intimidate working class white men, whilst peddling your bourgeoisie, privileged leftism in your highly paid career.

“Football is not for white elites like you. It belongs to working class men of all colours.”

It added: “Send me your address now and we can discuss this further in person.”

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post Mr O’Hagan, 42, said: “The last line was quite sinister, that we need to meet face to face and talk about this.

“I picked up the phone to the police - I’ve never called 999 in my life before - and they were very good, they took all the details and listened to my story.”

He said after speaking to the police he thought to look up the IP address the email was sent from.

An IP address is a unique number linked which identifies a computer or device when you go online, including where that device is connected to the internet.

“When it came back as the House of Commons my jaw hit the floor,” he said.

“It’s like some kind of bad film, and I’ve had two or three people check by other means and they’ve all said ‘yes it is a definite House of Commons IP address’.”

IP addresses can be masked using a virtual private network (VPN) which can switch your IP address by virtually placing you in a different location.

But the House of Commons authorities have now been in touch with Mr O’Hagan and said on Twitter: “We take threats of this nature very seriously and are investigating the matter now.”

Mr O’Hagan said police in his home county, which this newspaper is not revealing, and in Westminster were involved, and he had been in touch with staff at the Commons too.

“I just want to know who is behind this,” he said.

“I was a bit shaken at first. I’m just curious now, I’m not scared, I’m curious, I just want to know who is behind this.”

But he added it was “unnerving” and said: “It is a threat and you have to be a bit taken aback, as I say when I got the email I was shaking a bit.”

Around 3,000 staff work in the Commons and Mr O’Hagan said he hoped whoever was responsible was “dealt with properly”.

Names shared in another tweet relating to the issue are understood to be those of House of Commons technical staff who registered the domain name, and not an idication of who may have sent the email.

A House of Commons spokesperson said: “We are aware of an threatening email received by a television presenter. We take threats of this nature very seriously and are investigating the matter now.”

“Democracy is built on free speech and being able to voice displeasure at the political situation,” Mr O'Hagan said.

“When you have someone doing that and in response someone from behind the corridors of power is then emailing abuse and threats, that speaks volumes for where we’ve descended to in our political discourse and it is frightening.”