So much for Mr Corbyn’s kinder, gentler politics...
Widowed Tory MP reveals how she was targeted with swastikas and threatened by Labour during election
‘Someone urinated on my office door’
A TORY MP criticised Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘ kinder politics’ yesterday after she was targeted with abuse during the election.
Sheryll Murray called on all politicians to condemn the attacks as she described how a man urinated on her office door and swastikas were carved into her posters.
She also said Facebook refused to remove a page devoted to criticising her, which features a picture of women exposing their bottoms outside her constituency office.
The mother of two said she was also forced to close her office after a man threatened her.
Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, the 61year-old widow told Theresa May: ‘Over the past month I’ve had swastikas carved into posters, social media posts like “Burn the witch” and “Stab the c***”, people putting Labour Party posters over my home, photographing them and pushing them through my letterbox, and someone even urinated on my office door.
‘Hardly kinder, gentler politics. Can you suggest what can be done to stop this intimidation, which may well be putting off good people from serving in this place?’ The Prime Minister said: ‘You are absolutely right to raise this issue and you were not the only person who experienced this sort of intimidation during the election campaign, particularly – I’m sorry to say – this sort of intimidation was experienced by female candidates during the election campaign.
‘I believe this sort of behaviour has no place in our democracy.’
Mrs May added: ‘I think, particularly as I stand here and see the plaque that has been dedicated to the late Jo Cox, we should all remember what Jo said – we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than the things which divide us.’
Mrs Cox, the MP for Batley and Spen, was shot and stabbed to death by far-Right extremist Thomas Mair last year in her constituency. Mrs Cox’s family unveiled a plaque dedicated to her in Parlia- ment last week. Mr Corbyn called for a ‘kinder, gentler politics’ after ing being personal party elected abuse, members Labourcut to out ‘cut leader,the out cyber- urg-the bullying and especially the misogynistic abuse online’. But Mrs Murray, the MP for South East Cornwall, described how two men targeted her home with Labour posters. She also revealed that she was forced to stop holding hustings after a man threatened her.
Police later spoke to him, but she said she was forced to start locking the office door.
Yesterday, she revealed CCTV footage of a man urinating on her office door before swearing at the camera. She also shared pictures of three posters with swastikas carved into them and abusive messages online. Internet trolls also called for her to be stabbed. Mrs Murray, whose husband Neil died in a fishing accident in 2011, said social media companies had to do more to combat abuse. The MP, who was first elected in 2010, told the Daily Mail: ‘What particularly worries me is that this might send the message that it’s OK to behave like this. What example does this set to the younger generation? ‘ This is cyberbullying and it worries me that behaviour like this may cause young people to harm themselves. ‘It’s not just me who has experienced it but it’s the responsibility of all politicians to put the message out to say this is unaccepta- ble, abusive behaviour.’ The Cornwall-born politician said the issue was not ‘party political’ as female Labour MPs were also targeted during their own party’s leadership election. She also argued that social media users should not be able to remain anonymous and that they should be governed by the same publishing rules as the Press. Mrs Cox’s murder came amid growing alarm at the rising level of abuse directed towards MPs, particularly women. A police team created to handle crimes against MPs investigated more than 50 alleged offences between August last year and February this year. Mrs Murray said fellow Tory Dr Sarah Wollaston suffered online abuse, while their colleague Andrew Rosindell’s car window was smashed.
ACCORDING to the gospel of Jeremy Corbyn and the Left, every social evil of our age has a single cause: Austerity.
The Grenfell Tower tragedy? That was down to ‘Tory cuts’, they say – and never mind the evidence that it was caused by huge confusion over building regulations introduced and presided over by Labour.
Terrorist atrocities? Cuts again, in police and security agencies – though spending on anti-terror officers has actually shot up.
Lengthening NHS waiting lists? Problems in schools? Overcrowded trains? Austerity, austerity, austerity.
Indeed, listening to Mr Corbyn and his shroud-waving allies in the public sector, anyone would think the Conservatives had slashed state spending to the bone.
In fact, the sums spent in vast areas – including the NHS, schools and pensions – have soared in real terms since 2010.
Meanwhile, public debt has risen sharply as a proportion of national income, from 76 to 89 per cent between 2010 and 2016.
Contrast this with Ireland cutting its debt from 86 to 75 per cent, and it is hard to argue with the verdict of former Treasury mandarin Lord Macpherson: ‘Britain never experienced austerity.’
The truth is that David Cameron and George Osborne had their chance to put the country’s finances on a sound footing, when the nation understood our dire plight after the financial crash.
But they flunked their duty, piling up debts for our children and grandchildren, ignoring the wisdom of Margaret Thatcher: ‘You can’t spend what you don’t earn.’
Which is why the Mail is so disappointed that a succession of faint-hearted Tories called yesterday for lifting the brake on spending – raising the prospect of growth-throttling tax increases to finance it.
This paper understands state sector workers’ frustration over pay curbs (though many in the private sector have made bigger sacrifices). But with economic storm- clouds gathering, it would be disastrous to increase spending now.
Yes, ministers were shaken by the election result. But if they react by adopting Mr Corbyn’s fantasy tax-and-spend economics, it will be only a matter of time before the country has to learn the true meaning of austerity the hard way.
To quote another of Lady Thatcher’s eternal truths: ‘Eventually, Socialists run out of other people’s money.’