Death threats started the day I became an MP
Cops install panic button in politician’s family home after a deluge of violent hate mail targeting her and her kids
POLICE have stepped up security around an SNP MP targeted by death threats.
Dr Lisa Cameron yesterday revealed she had been receiving threats since the day she was elected in 2015.
The sickening abuse included threats to her children and images of beheaded corpses.
Alarms and panic buttons have now been fitted at her family home and security increased at her constituency office in East Kilbride.
Cameron, a former NHS consultant, spoke out as it was revealed a police team set up to handle crimes against MPs have dealt with 53 complaints since the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by a neo-Nazi extremist last June.
Almost £640,000 has been spent on MPs’ security since then.
Cameron, the MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, said she had been shocked at the lack of procedures to protect representatives.
She told BBC2’s Victoria Derbyshire programme: “I went from being a doctor where I was well respected and would never have received this type of threat … to having received threats where images of beheaded corpses were sent to me, with threats towards myself and my children and family’s lives.
“Someone had put together a letter from newspaper word cuttings and sent it to me, also threatening to harm me and my family.
“The security measures are a step in the right direction. Having come from the NHS and having seen the level of security and staff safety policy there, I was shocked MPs had very little in terms of risk management procedures in place. The threats did happen almost instantaneously from moving from one career to the next.
“It was almost like I was fair game and my children and family were then fair game too, which I think isn’t right.
“The police have been out to the constituency office and installed alarms at my home and also some panic buttons.”
Before becoming an MP, Cameron worked with patients with mental health problems and learning difficulties.
She said she had considered her future as an MP, adding: “I think you have to take account of the impact on your family. I’ve put myself in public life and I didn’t want to have a negative impact on them.
“However, I grew up in the constituency that I represent and it is a very real privilege to represent them and to do my very best for them.
“So I am hoping with appropriate risk management measures in place, we can all feel much more secure.”