Police officers accused of joining hard-left activists to openly abuse Tory candidates during election
One North Wales MP Guto Bebb claims he was so badly harassed by the force that he has taken out four complaints against the chief constable
POLICE officers are today accused of openly harassing Tory candidates during the election campaign - plunging the scandal of politicians’ abuse to a new low.
Serving cops joined hard left activists to carry out vile insults and intimidation on social media and in person, Conservative MPs claim.
A campaign waged against North Wales MP and government minister Guto Bebb was so bad that he has lodged four different complaints to his force’s chief constable.
Another Tory candidate has claimed his protests to police chiefs in Lincolnshire over harassment were laughed away.
And others say they were victims of a raft of anonymous abuse online by cops hiding their identities.
The revelations will inflame the spiralling row over the sinister role played by some public sector workers during the general election.
Tory MP Simon Hart will tomorrow lift the lid on the shameful behaviour by detailing sinning cops’ behaviour during a debate on political abuse in Westminster Hall.
Even veteran politicians say they have never experienced such a high level of vitriol, death threats and physical aggression as they did last month.
In the most alarming episode, one serving police officer emailed Bebb directly to tell him: “While I still have an a***hole, I will campaign every day to get rid of you as an MP”.
Another police officer posted a message to him on Facebook that accused him of being “a Tory c***”.
Bebb’s home in his constituency of Aberconwy has been twice targeted by intimidating protests at 2am with chants of ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’ - but he has felt unable to call for help.
Welsh Office minister Bebb told The Sun: “How can I have any confidence my complaints will be taken seriously when I receive these sorts of communications from an officer serving in my own local police station?
“Everyone has a right to be treated impartially by the police. Impartiality is part of their duty, and is expressly stated in their own rule book.
“But if I have no faith in them, how can my constituents?
Former Tory MP Karl McCartney, who lost his Lincoln seat last month, has also told colleagues at his fury with his local cops.
He has claimed a series of alarming threats against him and his supporters that he reported were purposely not treated seriously because of his political affiliation.
Another Tory candidate in Kent was also abused by a police officer in Kent as “a self-serving Tory w*****”.
Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire MP Hart said: “The rise of social media appears to have signalled open season on candidates and wide scale abuse, including most disturbingly from the police and teaching industry.
“There is no doubt this is damaging democracy.
“The time has come for political leaders on the left to actually do something about it, and say this sort of vile behaviour must not happen in their name.
“Good people are being driven out of politics altogether, and that is in nobody’s interests.”
Cops are the latest in a series of public sector workers accused of showing extreme bias towards the Tories, in behaviour that it has been claimed cast influence on the general election result.
It has also emerged that hundreds of teachers wrote to their pupils’ parents during the campaign to urge them not to vote Tory.
Downing Street is looking at introducing a new criminal offence of intimidating prospective MPs after uproar over how Tory candidates were treated during the heated election campaign.
The Electoral Commission is also backing a law change to clamp down on social media abuse during election campaigns, which is currently without any oversight at all.
PM Theresa May insisted on Monday: “We must make sure the message goes out very clearly that has no role in our democracy”.
Hard left Labour leader Mr Corbyn has also condemned the abuse, but is accused by Tories of being too slow to distance himself from it.
A North Wales Police spokesman said: “We have recently received correspondence from Mr Bebb and the matters will be examined”.
Meanwhile an alarming cross-party report found one Tory MP was targeted with a vile anti-Semitic attack while campaigning.
Other candidates revealed that they feared for their lives following vicious smears – including false claims of paedophilia.
And the Commons report also discovered that another Tory candidate was the subject of racist graffiti in a polling booth.