I WILL NOT BE GAGGED
Defiant MP bravely hits back at the hate-filled trolls
The abuse that politicians and candidates attract puts constituents off becoming MPs
LABOUR MP Chi Onwurah has been the victim of a hate-filled trolling campaign after she said it was wrong to use the abuse of young women as an excuse to attack Muslims or Pakistani immigrants.
Ms Onwurah told the Commons some of the messages aimed at her had accused her of “unspeakable crimes”.
And she said they made it harder for her to respond to attempts by her constituents to contact her with their views.
Ms Onwurah, Labour MP for Newcastle Central, had accused the far-right of attempting to use recent convictions in the Operation Sanctuary inquiry to further their racist agenda.
Juries at Newcastle Crown Court found 17 men and one woman guilty of involvement in a sex grooming network in the city which involved rape, human trafficking, conspiracy to incite prostitution and drug supply.
In an article published by the Guardian newspaper, Ms Onwurah said she felt “overwhelming anger” at the guilty men.
But in it she also attacked the farright EDL for “attempts to make this abuse and exploitation an issue of race and religion”.
The EDL marched in Newcastle last week in response to the Operation Sanctury investigation.
And Ms Onwurah, said: “The idea that Muslim immigrants and their families have brought sexual abuse and violence against women to our shores is an insult to them, as well as to the generations of women and sexual abuse victims who have lived among us for centuries and whose suffering had no name or voice.”
But her comments led to a backlash on the social media site Twitter.
Ms Onwurah told the Commons: “Last week, I wrote an article about the reprehensible crimes uncovered by Operation Sanctuary in my constituency.
“As a consequence, I have received thousands of abusive tweets threatening me and accusing me of unspeakable crimes.
“As well as being unpleasant in themselves, those tweets prevented me from seeing what my constituents had to say about the issue, and that is what concerns me most.
“The abuse that politicians and candidates often attract not only prevents the interaction between constituents and MPs, but puts constituents off becoming MPs.”
She added: “Everyone here has a duty to promote the House as being representative and as somewhere all can come to to represent their views, their cities and their constituencies.
“However, it is hard to see this place becoming more representative while Members of Parliament are subjected to such abuse, which is putting many people off aspiring to what is nevertheless the best job in the world.”
She was speaking after a number of MPs said candidates in June’s General Election had been targeted for abuse because of their gender, sexuality, class or ethnicity. Shadow Home Secretary, Diane Abbott, has described how she was racially abused and received death threats.
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Ms Abbott said the racist abuse she had received on Twitter had been
“really quite frightening”.
“When I say abuse, it’s not people saying ‘I disagree with you about nationalising the railways,’ it’s people calling you a ‘n ***** bitch,’ it’s people threatening acid attacks, it’s rape, it’s death threats.”
Appearing before the Committee on Standards in Public Life, which is investigating the intimidation of parliamentary candidates, Conservative Party chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin said he could not remember an election when there had been so much abuse.
And Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery, MP for Wansbeck, said the abuse had been “like nobody has seen before” with the “lion’s share” aimed at women.
“The press played a huge role in this. They’re no angels in this and they stirred racial hatred, they stirred political hatred right the way through the election and since the election,” he said.
And Conservative Bob Stewart, MP for Beckenham, south London, told the House of Commons that a teacher told pupils to shun his 13-year-old son because of who his father was.