Up next in 10
A former MP says threats aimed at politicians should come with harsher sentences and has called on police to take the safety of politicians "more seriously."
Henry Riley is joined by LBC's Yorkshire Correspondent Alex Taylor-Brown who sat down with Paula Sherriff, who served as the Labour MP for Dewsbury from 2015 to 2019.
Sherriff discusses abuse she received whilst serving as an MP and how the police's response differed with each case.
In July, former Conservative Minister and Reform Uk spokesperson Ann Widdecombe was killed at her home in Devon.
She'd been hit on the head with a hammer 21 times. 28 year old Joshua Kerry from Rotherham was charged with her murder.
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0:00
A month ago, as we reacted here on LBC to the death of Anne Whittacombe
0:04
and discussed the safety of current and former politicians, my LBC colleague, usually in this slot, Ian Dale
0:10
spoke with the former Labour MP, Paula Sheriff, who lost her seat in the Commons back in 2019
0:15
And her account of the kinds of abuse and threats she's been sent
0:19
since leaving Parliament was shocking. Last year I received a tweet and it was public saying
0:25
you deserve a 9mm bullet in your head. and i hope you die of cancer which is lovely i'm a cancer patient i'm a cancer survivor so obviously
0:35
unpleasant on on both accounts so i contacted my local police force um that's west george police
0:42
and they came out the following day took a statement of me they were with me for a few hours
0:47
the the man who was who sent this tweet or i assume it's a man is using a pseudonym
0:52
on X. I reported the tweet or the post to X. They told me it did not contravene
0:58
their community standards. Like, hello? Really? You deserve a 9mm bullet in the head. Bear in mind that I live
1:06
three miles from Bristol where Joe was killed. And then, so the
1:12
police came round, never heard from them, eventually kept ringing them, ringing them
1:16
didn't get in touch. Still haven't heard anything from the police. And I've just looked now prior to taking the call
1:22
this evening. The last communication I received from the police was the 5th of November last year
1:27
saying we're still reviewing this case, we'll get back in touch with you when there's anything to
1:32
tell you. Well it's now July and I've heard nothing. Paula Sheriff, the former Labour MP
1:36
speaking here, as I mentioned to Ian Dale about a month ago. Following that, LBC's Yorkshire
1:41
correspondent Alex Taylor-Brown has been to meet with Paula to hear more about her experiences and
1:46
how she thinks current and former politicians could be kept safer and we also been in touch with West Yorkshire Police about how it handled the threats she faced And Alex joins me on the line now Alex Taylor LBC Yorkshire correspondent
1:58
Tell us more, Alex. Yeah, Henry, well, just off the back of what we heard
2:03
from Paula there about that latest incident where that horrendous post was sent to her on X
2:10
we had a statement from West Yorkshire Police who told us they are now making inquiries
2:14
inquiries into what attempts were made to update the victim but as we heard from Paula she reported
2:20
it didn't hear anything back and it was only by her chasing it up herself that they then told her
2:26
oh no sorry we couldn't find the person responsible um yeah obviously Paula I went to
2:32
Paula um after she spoke to Ian that was in the wake of what happened to Anne Whittacombe last
2:38
month Paula was the MP for the Labour MP for Dewsbury for five years before she lost her seat
2:43
in 2019. She's been quite open about the abuse that she suffered as a politician during that time
2:49
and told me it actually started quite quickly into her parliamentary career
2:53
I remember I was sitting in the House of Commons. It was late at night. It was a Monday night. So we
2:58
voted usually at 10. So it was maybe like nine, half nine at night. And I got a message via my
3:04
Facebook account. Somebody said they were going to rape and kill me. And that was a real shock
3:10
I remember showing it to one of my colleagues. I was obviously quite, well, I was a very new MP and I didn't quite know what to do
3:17
I didn't know if this was the norm. Showed it to my colleague and she said, my goodness, you need to go to the police
3:22
Abuse and intimidation ramped up. Paula says she was constantly hounded. One man was leaving swastikas outside her constituency office in Dewsbury, but no further action was taken against him
3:37
And that important to remember as well in terms of where you know Paula was an MP Dewsbury The neighbouring constituency was Batley and Spen which was Joe Cox constituency And Paula says that they raised concerns about safety around the office
3:52
but they were always acted upon. We asked for our office to be considered for CCTV
3:59
So our office was in Dewsbury town centre. And ironically, it was declined
4:04
We seemingly hadn't met the threshold. and later that day was the day that that joe cox was murdered just up the road on that same day
4:13
and and then after that obviously that was that was really awful and we felt it so much more
4:21
acutely here because of the local aspect it was literally three miles up the road
4:25
and so we then all received information from the parliamentary authorities saying that we could have
4:34
like CCTV and things at our offices, our homes. David Amos was actually Paula's close friend
4:40
So again, attacks on MPs is something that Paula has felt the effects of more than most
4:44
on top of the actual threats to herself. And as we heard earlier when she spoke to Ian last month, those threats continue
4:51
And with the death of Anne Whittacombe in July, Paula says the current systems in place to protect both current and former MPs
4:59
is not working well enough. So there is an element that the different authorities aren't perhaps working as well together as they should be. So you've got obviously the police, you've got the parliamentary authorities and the police, like within the parliamentary system. You know, you've got the local police forces, you've got the offices. But I don't know, there seems to be a massive inconsistency with the police forces as well
5:21
some just seem to honestly they're just some some do well i'm aware of cases where where people have
5:30
had fantastic response from their local police force so it isn you know don get me wrong i know there are some fantastic officers out there that are really concerned by this But I just I genuinely don think they take it seriously
5:45
Operation Bridger, that's the main sort of police protection for MPs. That's said to have been strengthened following those murders
5:50
of Joe Cox and Sir David Amess. MPs have a police contact intelligence is meant to be shared
5:56
but it's not like MPs have their own bodyguard or anything like that
6:00
And a lot of this, Paula says, was ramped up. following and we can probably all sort of point to it as well Brexit and the language that was used
6:07
by certain politicians following that Paula said that language is often reflected word for word
6:13
in her and in her inbox and she said she had a seven point plan with LBC that she feels
6:19
needs to be implemented in order to improve the safety of MPs and explain some of those ideas
6:24
there has to be more education as well and and I say when I say education I mean do I mean in
6:29
schools yeah i do but i also mean i don't know some sort of public awareness campaigns about
6:38
you know about how it is unacceptable to abuse your mp and if you if you do it
6:43
and you know perhaps make sentencing more severe the home office on this as well they say alongside
6:49
police we work closely the parliamentary security department to provide support to mps the home
6:54
secretary is also looking at what security guidance can be provided to mps and has commissioned a
6:58
a review of the lessons from Sir David Amess's murder to identify improvements
7:04
Diane Ridicombe was the third British politician to be killed in the last 10 years
7:08
and what Paula's calling for is action to prevent another similar tragedy
7:13
Thank you very much, Alex. Much appreciated. Alex Taylor-Brown there, who, I mean, some of the details in that story
7:20
and some of the abuse that Paula Sheriff was getting and is still receiving
7:23
is clearly unacceptable. but Alex Teller-Brown there, LBC's Yorkshire correspondent, with the details on that
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