People have wished me dead – why do women MPs have to suffer such sick abuse?
As a poll reveals a shocking number of female MPs have been threatened with violence, Labour's Jess Phillips asks what can be done to stem the culture of abuse
A SURVEY of female MPs this week revealed that more than half of those who answered the poll had received threats of physical violence.
One in six of those who responded said that if they had known beforehand what it is like being an MP receiving abuse, they were not sure they would do it again.
I wasn’t shocked by the survey.
It’s been widely publicised how much abuse female MPs have suffered.
“You better watch your back, Jewish scum,” he ranted at her in his messages.
There is no doubt that our male counterparts also suffer. But many of my male colleagues have said to me over the past year that never have they experienced the level of violent or sexually violent abuse that the women receive.
Over the next few years we will see many more of these court cases as the criminal justice agencies start to grapple with the huge challenge of online hatred.
In the early days of the rising misogyny and Twitter bile targeting women politicians, I think the police and the courts weren’t sure what to do.
I’ve heard mixed reports from colleagues about how seriously they have been taken by local police forces and how equipped to manage the challenge of anonymous hate crimes they actually were.
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I have always found West Midlands Police to be very responsive to my complaints when people have wished me dead or mocked up images of me bound up.
The tragic and still raw and painful murder of Jo Cox — killed by Thomas Mair last June — has caused everyone to pause for thought.
Women MPs are no longer able to brush off aggressive emails or social media threats in the way we once would. We have to think of having our offices fitted with panic alarms and safe rooms.
The police and the House of Commons security teams similarly have become acutely aware that better security and risk assessments are needed. Unfortunately, it just isn’t that easy to manage.
The sheer scale and worldwide spread of the internet means tracking down where the hatred originates can be tricky.
The most graphic and violent messages posted about me being raped and mutilated were found to be coming from an internet server in South America.
MPs are easy enough to protect in the Palace of Westminster with its guards and metal detectors. But unless we were all given bodyguards 24/7 (which I’m definitely not suggesting) there is no way to offer guaranteed protection as we walk around our communities — and we sure as hell won’t give that up.
The truth about this survey and the changing nature of internet hatred against MPs is that actually we are not necessarily at any greater risk than we were.
We just get loads more hassle, and it’s around the clock. I don’t want people to think I’m afraid to walk around or knock on doors just as I always have. I’m not.
I am tired of the fact that as a woman who fought hard to get where I am, this has become part of my already difficult job.
Evil attacks of trolls and protestors
LABOUR MP Stephen Timms, right, was stabbed twice in the stomach by a student who was angry that he voted for the Iraq War. He survived the 2010 attack.
Tim Loughton, a former Tory children’s minister, told the Commons in 2013 how a constituent called him an “arrogant, racist, lying a**ehead” and published “doctored photographs” of him on his blog. Troll Peter Nunn, 33, was jailed after he threatened to rape Labour MP Stella Creasy and feminist Caroline Criado-Perez for campaigning in 2013 to put Jane Austen on £10 notes.
Politicians who supported action in Syria were subjected to online abuse in December 2015. Labour trio Stella Creasy, Diana Johnson and Liz Kendall were all threatened by protestors.
Labour leadership hopeful Angela Eagle cancelled a constituency surgery after her office window was smashed in July last year.
She said afterwards that she received hundreds of “vile, horrid emails”.
Former shadow International Development minister Mary Creagh had a brick thrown through her constituency office window in September last year. Labour MP Ruth Smeeth said she received 25,000 anti-Semitic messages last year – of which 20,000 came in one 12-hour period.
Neo-Nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine, 24, was jailed last December for sending Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger anti-Semitic tweets.
Berger said the ordeal left her fearing for her safety.