Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Countdown Rachel’s Twitter abuse ordeal
RACHEL Riley has admitted being shocked at abuse she received after speaking out about alleged anti-semitism within the Labour Party.
The Countdown star has criticised leader Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of the ongoing controversy.
Last month, she threatened legal action against Twitter trolls, said to be Labour supporters, who allegedly targeted her with “horrific” abuse and harassment.
Rachel, 33, told ITV’S The Jonathan Ross Show that her speaking out was initially “kind of accidental and snowballed exponentially”. She said: “I’m not political. “I just noticed this creeping anti-jewish stuff going into the press and coming into conversations with people and I thought it was weird.”
Rachel said people were saying to her: “You’re being paid by someone, what’s your agenda? Who is making you say this? It’s a lie? You’re just trying to smear, it isn’t really happening.”
But the TV host said she has also been sent positive messages. She added: “At the same time as I got all of this abuse, which was shocking, I got all these people coming forward really grateful that I’d said anything.
“They’d been doing this, shouting into the ether for three years, and the more I did a couple of tweets, the more abuse you get, the more attention you get and the more stories you get, and the more people you meet who are really suffering.”
Rachel, whose mother is Jewish, says she is nonpracticing. After she first told of being targeted by trolls, Mr Corbyn insisted antisemitism should not be “allowed to disfigure our society”.
The Jonathan Ross Show airs on ITV tomorrow at 9.30pm.