We look at the number and severity of threats, and how offenders are dealt with

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The plea from the Labour MP Paula Sherriff for Boris Johnson and others to tone down their political rhetoric has returned the focus to the daily threats of violence faced by public figures.

Are threats to public figures on the rise?

Earlier this year, Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, told parliamentarians the number of threats to MPs had risen significantly.

In the first five months of 2019, MPs reported 152 crimes to the police, who also received reports of another 600 incidents involving MPs. This is a 90% rise on the same period last year and the Met has predicted that if the trend continues, more than 450 crimes will be reported by the end of the year.

In 2018, the number of crimes reported by MPs more than doubled from 151 in 2017 to 342.

Dick said female MPs and MPs from ethnic minorities were disproportionately targeted, and about 10 MPs accounted for 29% of reports.

How can the threats be dealt with?

A range of charges can be used to tackle threats of violence, including making a threat to kill, sending malicious communications, or harassment.

Threatening to kill is at the most serious end of such offending, carrying a potential 10-year prison sentence, but the charge is rarely used.

Earlier this year, the Met commander Adrian Usher, told MPs: “It is a notoriously difficult offence to prove because it contains an element of intent, and as soon as we get into intent as a point to prove, my own experience in the courts is that that is very difficult.”

More commonly, offenders are convicted of harassment or malicious communications.

Has any action been taken?

There have been a number of successful prosecutions.

Robert Vidler was jailed for 18 weeks after being convicted in August on three counts of sending menacing or obscene messages and five counts of harassment. He sent voicemails to several MPs saying he knew where they lived and their movements, and threatening to kill them. He sent Nick Boles, the independent MP for Grantham, a voicemail threatening to cut his throat “if you fuck up Brexit”.

David Stuart, who was convicted in May on two counts of sending a threatening communication, received a 36-week prison sentence suspended for two years. He had sent threatening emails to Andy McDonald, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough, and Anna Soubry, the MP for Broxtowe and the leader of the Independent Group for Change.

Jarod Kirkman was jailed for 42 weeks after being convicted in April on six counts of sending threatening messages to MPs. He sent the online communications to Heidi Allen, the independent MP for South Cambridgeshire, and David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, who are both remain campaigners. Using email addresses such as “MP@deadpoliticianwalking.com” and “Putin@fsb.ru”, with subject lines of “Brexit traitor” and “Brexit loser”, in one message to Allen he said, “Your days are fucking numbered bitch”, and to David Lammy he wrote: “Fuck off and die in the jungle.”

Does the language mirror that used in political debate?

In some cases, yes.

Earlier this month, Boris Johnson said during a speech in Yorkshire that he would “rather be dead in a ditch” than agree to extend the Brexit deadline.

On Wednesday, the Labour MP Jess Phillips tweeted a picture of a death threat she had received. The letter stated: “It was rather prophetic that Boris Johnson should say: ‘I would rather be found dead in a ditch’. That is what will happen to those who do not deliver Brexit.”

Jess Phillips Esq., M.P. (@jessphillips) This week I received an anonymous letter to my constituency office here is what it said. @10DowningStreet might think we are "humbugs" about his words but they are literally being used in death threats against me. pic.twitter.com/au6E0v9CpI

Sheriff, in her condemnation of the prime minister’s language, detailed how daily death threats to her and fellow MPs “often quote his [Johnson’s] words – ‘Surrender Act’, ‘betrayal’, ‘traitor’ – and I for one am sick of it”.

Play Video 2:43 Outrage as Boris Johnson dismisses dangers of inflammatory language as 'humbug' - video

When asked for his name in court, Jo Cox’s killer, Thomas Mair, said: “My name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain.” He also wrote about “collaborators”.

The far-right extremist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, reportedly wrote on his official Telegram account that “21 Tory traitors decided to side with Corbyn and the Labour traitors and try and block the Brexit that the majority of people voted for”.