South Wales MP receives death threat
A PROMINENT South Wales MP has received a death threat after calling for kindness following the killing of fellow MP Sir David Amess.
On Saturday, Rhondda MP Chris Bryant tweeted asking for kindness and to respect other peoples opinions and differing politics.
The tweet was in response to the killing of Conservative MP Sir David Amess on Friday, at a surgery in his Southend West constituency.
The first tweet on Saturday read: “Let’s all send a kind message on Twitter today to a politician we disagree with. Let’s eliminate the negative.”
On Sunday he then posted: “You only have to look through some of the responses to this tweet to see the poison that is infecting British politics. And now I’ve had yet again another death threat.”
Mr Bryant told us: “Over the years I have had a lot of death threats. They happen about four to five times a year. People have been arrested, cautioned by the police and one has gone to jail for it.
“There are many people putting themselves in harm’s way on behalf of the public every day but there can’t be many workplaces that have suffered two murders in five years.
“One of the great things about our system is I go to Morrisons, I go to the pub, I get on the train to go to a rugby match, just like everybody else.
“People can approach me and there’s a danger about that as well of course, if you have fixated individuals harbouring a lot of anger and sometimes we become a target.
“You don’t want to put MPs in fortresses. You never know when you’re going to come across a fixated individual, so you have to be careful.”
Mr Bryant added that he has reported the latest threat to the police.
Meanwhile, a fellow South Wales MP said there was a police presence at his constituency surgery for the first time in “several years” on Saturday, as security was stepped up in the wake of Sir David Amess’s fatal stabbing.
Ogmore MP Chris Elmore said security already had been heightened in the aftermath of the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016, with extra locks and CCTV cameras in place at his constituency office in Pencoed, near Bridgend, with panic alarms provided for him, colleagues and family. “There will be a police presence at my surgery today for the first time in several years, certainly since the Brexit debate,” he told the BBC on Saturday morning.
“It does play on your mind... but I am elected to serve my constituents. I’m elected to be accessible to my constituents.”
He added: “I can’t comprehend David being killed, for doing the job I know he loved.”