MPs ‘fear another killing’ in climate of abuse from public
MPS FEAR another murder like that of Jo Cox, Dewbsury MP Paula Sherriff has warned.
In an interview with The Guardian, Ms Sherriff spoke of the abuse she had received before and after standing up to Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the language he used in Parliament.
And when asked whether MPs fear another one of them could be killed, she said: “Yes, I think they do. And I don’t want to look back and thinking: ‘I could have said something, and I didn’t, and now we’ve lost another colleague’.”
Ms Sherriff revealed in the interview she had CCTV and alarms installed in her home, and referencing the killing of Ms Cox, who was MP for Batley and Spen, said: “A senior officer did suggest to us a few months ago that we have post-traumatic stress.”
Ms Sherriff asked Mr Johnson last month to think about the language he used in the House of
Commons, referencing the murder of Ms Cox and saying many of the phrases used by the PM were seen in threats made against her.
In just a week afterwards Ms Sherriff was the victim of five death threats, had two visits from police, and received more than 1,000 abusive messages.
One called her a “joke” and said
“the public will act soon and I can not [sic] wait to see you hanging from a lamppost, you deserve it and more”.
Ms Sherriff has received rape threats, and another message told her she would “get her comeuppance” and the Brexit Party would “drain the swamp of all you ******* remainer traitors”.