A teacher told the classmates of a Conservative MP’s son they should not to talk to him because his father was a Tory, the politician has said in a debate where MPs from all parties spoke of the abuse they received during the general election.



Bob Stewart, the MP for Beckenham in Kent and a former United Nations commander, said all his children had been targeted by schoolmates because of his job as an MP.

“All my four children have been hassled by other kids in their local schools because of the job of their father,” he said. “There’s little that can be done about that because they’re children, and my kids are robust enough to withstand it.”

He had been shocked, however, when his son told him a teacher had also been involved. “Such behaviour is taken to a new level when, during the last election, a teacher tells the class of my 13-year-old boy that nobody should talk to him because he is the son of a Conservative MP,” he said, as MPs in the chamber cried “shame!”

The Home Office minister Sarah Newton said Stewart’s experience was “simply unacceptable” and that standing for public office should be seen as a noble thing. “And those people in a position of responsibility and influence, such as a teacher, should be upholding the shared values of our country.”

Newton said she did not want fear of abuse to hamper democracy, or dissuade people from standing for public office. “It is essential for our democracy that people are able to stand for office and become a member of parliament without fearing they will experience abuse. It is equally essential MPs are able to represent their constituents without being abused or intimidated,” she said.

“We should all be able to go about our work and live our lives without fear of abuse. While it’s really important we look at what more we can do, I want to reassure all members that arrangements are in place to ensure the safety of MPs.”

The debate came a day after a specialist police team set up to investigate crimes against MPs said it had dealt with 102 complaints in its first year of operation.

The Metropolitan police’s parliamentary liaison and investigations team, set up in August 2016 after the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox, said it had dealt with 71 complaints of “malicious communication”, which included abusive messages or letters, 15 thefts and seven allegations of criminal damage. There were five reports of harassment and four of racially aggravated harassment between August 2016 and 20 July 2017.

During the debate, Cat Smith, the shadow minister for voter engagement, said most MPs on both sides of the Commons had experienced abuse.



“We would be doing a disservice for the parliamentary democracy we all believe in if we did not recognise this is an issue for all political sides,” she said. “We must recognise people claiming to be supporters of every political party in this chamber have, online or offline, abused candidates of other political parties.”

Earlier on Thursday, the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, spoke on ITV’s Good Morning Britain about her experience of abuse during the general election. She said her attackers had used racial slurs, words that had to be bleeped by the broadcaster.

“It’s not people saying ‘I disagree with you about nationalising the railways’, it’s people calling you a ‘nigger bitch’, it’s people threatening acid attacks, it’s rape [threats], it’s death threats,” she said.

The programme’s presenter, Susanna Reid, said the content of the abuse was too offensive to be broadcast on the show.

During the Commons debate, MPs recounted how they had feared for their safety on leaving parliament and gave examples from party colleagues who had been defeated or failed to win seats, so could not speak in the debate.

The Conservative MP Vicky Ford said she knew of a partially sighted Tory candidate who had been threatened with rape, as well as a threat to “shoot her then pull the teeth out of her jaw while she fades away”.

Another Conservative MP, Pauline Latham, said there had been “less intimidation” during the presidential election in Rwanda than had occurred in the UK.

She said the defeated Tory MP Amanda Solloway in Derby North had been subjected to smears, including a Facebook page about her husband’s bankruptcy. “This was a targeted, personal and unfair campaign against our former colleague, and I would call it bullying,” she said.

Some MPs taking part in the debate said they had been prompted to speak out for the first time, including the Labour MP Graham Jones, who said he had been targeted after a Commons vote on Syria airstrikes.



“I’ve got an eight-year-old daughter at school, I never say this to anybody, I never put my family on leaflets, I keep them out, this is the first time I’m going to say this,” he said. “She did not deserve what came from some comments, disgracefully from people calling themselves Labour party members.

“And it’s about time some people woke up to the fact we’re not robots, we’re not there to be abused and there are other people who are victims to this who are not on the ballot paper.”

Christine Jardine, the new Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, said political opponents had accused her of campaigning during the election’s pause to remember the victims of the Manchester terrorist attack. She had actually been attending her husband’s funeral.

Jardine called it a “mindless attack” on a day when she had been trying to comfort her daughter. “My husband’s death had been widely reported but the accusation was retweeted and explanations were demanded,” she said. “I replied and I explained. The abuse didn’t stop but actually escalated.

“To them, all that mattered was the opportunity to appear clever with sarcastic comments, to put someone else down or gain political advantage. They had a public forum where they could say whatever they like with impunity.”

The Cabinet Office minister Chris Skidmore told MPs the government would wait for a review by the committee on standards in public life before taking action. It is due to report back before the end of the year.