Racism, misogyny, threats: politicians who have suffered abuse

MPs are to debate abuse and intimidation of parliamentary candidates in UK elections on Wednesday after a cross-party report said misogyny, racism and bigotry was on the rise.

Labour and the Conservatives have each accused the other of failing to act to stamp out abuse by their members and activists.

Here are some examples of abuse received by politicians from the UK’s two biggest parties:

Diane Abbott, Labour

The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington receives sexist and racist abuse online on a daily basis.

Writing for the Guardian, Abbott said she had received “rape threats, death threats, and am referred to routinely as a bitch and/or nigger, and am sent horrible images on Twitter”.

The death threats include an EDL-affiliated account with the tag “burn Diane Abbott”, she said.

Luciana Berger, Labour

The MP for Liverpool Wavertree has been subjected to repeated antisemitic and misogynistic abuse online.

A man who harassed Berger was in December jailed for two years after a trial at the Old Bailey. Joshua Bonehill-Paine, 24, wrote five hate-filled blogs about Berger, calling her a “dominatrix” and “an evil money-grabber” with a “deep-rooted hatred of men”. In one, he claimed the number of Jewish Labour MPs was a “problem”.

Stella Creasy, Labour

Creasy, MP for Walthamstow, has been subjected to repeated misogynistic abuse.

Peter Nunn, 33, from Bristol, was in 2014 jailed for 18 weeks for bombarding Creasy with abusive tweets after she supported a successful campaign to put the image of Jane Austen on the £10 note. He retweeted menacing posts threatening to rape the MP and branding her a witch.

Ameet Jogia, Conservative

Jogia was subjected to racist abuse in last month’s election when he ran as a parliamentary candidate in Brent North against Labour’s Barry Gardiner, who won the seat.

He was alerted to racist graffiti scrawled on the wall of a voting booth in Wembley, in the consituency, reading: “Vote Labour Barry, not Jogia. Keep pakis out of politics.”

Sheryll Murray, Conservative

Murray, MP for South East Cornwall and a member of Conservative Friends of Israel, revealed in the House of Commons the abuse she experienced during the election campaign.

Someone urinated on her office door, swastikas were carved into her campaign posters, she received abuse on social media saying things such as “burn the witch” and people plastered Labour party posters over her home.

Andrew Percy, Conservative

Percy, the MP for Brigg and Goole and the Isle of Axholme, was called “Israeli scum”, “Zionist scum” and “disgusting” to his face while on the campaign trail in the east Yorkshire constituency.

The incident took place in May. Percy had converted to Judaism two months previously.

Jess Phillips, Labour

Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley, said in 2016 that internet trolls sent her more than 600 messages in one night about raping her.

Phillips received huge volumes of online abuse after her election in 2015 and launched a campaign to end sexist bullying on the web.

Anna Soubry, Conservative

A man tweeted in December 2016 that someone should “Jo Cox” Soubry, the MP for Broxstowe and a former minister. Cox was shot and stabbed to death by the far-right supporter Thomas Mair.

The Twitter user was subsequently identified and later convicted for sending offensive messages. Michael McAlpine, 25, from Bethnal Green, London, was given a suspended prison sentence.