Swastikas and Labour abuse for Tory MP

A TORY MP criticised Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘kinder politics’ yesterday after she was the target of 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.

Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, the 61-year-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 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 a 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.’

Mrs May added: ‘I think, particularly as I stand here and see the plaque that has been dedicated to Jo Cox, we should remember what Jo said – we 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 Parliament last week. Mr Corbyn called for a ‘kinder, gentler politics’ after being elected Labour leader, urging party members to ‘cut out the personal abuse, cut out the cyberbullying 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.

The mother of two said: ‘What 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?’

Comment – Page 16