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'Traitor, piece of s***, horrible excuse of a woman': New MPs fear attacks after receiving hundreds of abusive messages
19 July 2024, 06:01
New MPs have been branded "traitors", "parasites" and "pieces of s**t" in hundreds of offensive messages received in their first few days in office, LBC has learned.
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Abusive online posts have been directed at many of the 335 politicians stepping foot in the Commons for the first time after this month's General Election.
LBC has viewed at least 200 made on public sites - mainly by anonymous accounts - using the replies function on X and in the comments section on TikTok, but the true number is likely far higher.
They've seen vile terms used to describe MPs from every major party since July 5th including "c***", "piece of s***" and "lying b*****".
Another was branded a "horrible excuse of a woman", others were told to "get back in your sewer" and called "scum", "a waste of f****** skin", "parasites", "a Nazi" and "a terrorist lover" - while several MPs have also seen their faith, age and appearance attacked with terms such as "religious nutter" and "specky old cow" used.
The new SNP MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East Seamus Logan said: "It (the abuse) comes with the territory. However that’s not to excuse the misogynistic, sometimes racist and even threatening tweets . I think for some people, and particularly for women, it is really distressing and its something that we need to do something about.
"It (online abuse turning into physical violence) does worry me to some extent. It was absolutely tragic what happened in the case of Joe Cox and David Amess and more recently we've seen the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in America. There is absolutely no place for that kind of violence in political life and yes it should worry me. Thank god we have got very good options for personal security and I’m very grateful for that, especially for my family and my staff and that is a great reassurance.
"But it shouldn’t be like that. We should not have to live in a world where people are allowed to encourage others through the use of their words and their posts, which might give someone cause to take things further and actually in the real world physically threaten us."
The government’s adviser on political violence Lord Walney agrees that is a real risk.
He told LBC: "Let’s not forget two MPs have been murdered in recent years by political extremists. This is not theoretical conversation and yes, I am deeply concerned that the normalisation of hatred and aggression towards political figures does create a permissive environment for that odd one-off to take it further in to direct violence against the against the individual.
"It’s a real risk, it's happened before and we've got to do more to take it on. It is sad but not surprising to look at the content of the messages that you you've uncovered here and unfortunately this is only a snapshot of what our representatives are having to endure day in, day out."
And the head of the Met Police Sir Mark Rowley's also commented on the link between online and physical attacks, telling LBC on Thursday: "Look at public debate. Look at social media. Look at the polarisation. Look at the sort of aggressive, aggressive language out there. I think that feeds through into what takes place on streets and the way people behave. I think that's pretty clear. And at the extremes, that creates some really troubling behaviour. And for politicians out canvassing, some of them have felt very uncomfortable. I completely understand.
"(During the election) clearly some candidates felt intimidated through the process and that's something that we and the Government and the Home Office and Parliament are all looking at all looking at now."
Several new MPs have also told us they want to see updated regulation or legislation brought forward to tackle the issue of online abuse and the potential physical threats it can lead to, with Ofcom revealing earlier this year it was "watching" the progress of an EU-launched investigation into how X is being used to spread hate speech and disinformation and how the body its looking at the measures in place for "mitigating risks to civic discourse and electoral processes".
Watch Again: Tom Swarbrick is joined by Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley | 18/07/24
The new Labour MP for Bassetlaw Jo White backs those calls and told LBC the only reason she's been able to cope with recent abuse is because her 'skin has been toughened' by vile comments sent her way in the past.
She said: "My husband was the MP for Bassetlaw up until 2019 and the abuse he got was horrendous and I also had rape and death threats just because I was married to him.
"My skin got was toughened as a consequence of that brutal experience and I think because I've had that experience, I can cope with it. I feel I'm able to deal with it.
"We have to work together no matter which party people are from. It's about supporting one another through this. It's not acceptable behaviour and people shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. It’s so easy to sit with a phone in front of you and type a horrific message and think that you that you've upset somebody and go away and forget about what you said, while your message can have huge, huge consequences to the person that receives it - that's got to stop."
And the new Labour MP for Glasgow South Gordon McKee said: " People are perfectly entitled to disagree with you. And that's important, it's important to be challenged. But there shouldn't be racist or sexist abuse. I almost feel quite lucky as a man, I think women get it much worse in politics than men do and there should be absolutely no place for it.
"There is an enormous responsibility on social media companies…to make sure their platforms are accessible, and I’m not just meaning for MPs but for all users especially young people who are going on and seeing all sort of toxic content. I’m looking forward to using my voice as an MP to argue strongly to make sure that social media is not becoming the unpleasant place that I think it often is."
