Trolls are trying to silence me, says BBC Laura
LAURA Kuenssberg yesterday spoke out against the trolls who have threatened and abused her online.
The BBC political editor said critics were trying to ‘silence’ her – but insisted their campaign against her would never work.
The BBC was forced to hire a bodyguard to protect Miss Kuenssberg while she covered the Labour Party conference in September after a barrage of threats.
She was also given protection at the Tory conference shortly afterwards, although it was claimed this was so the broadcaster could maintain political balance. She spoke about the difficulties of her job and the campaign of abuse for the first time yesterday.
She told a Jewish Care business lunch in London: ‘I didn’t aspire to have the finger pointed at me. What they are trying to do is silence me.’
Interviewed by her outgoing boss, BBC News director James Harding, the political editor said she would not allow the campaign by trolls to work.
‘No matter how unpleasant and personal it might be, it is not as bad as what other journalists face around the world in much more difficult circumstances,’ she said. In the interview Miss Kuenssberg, who is not Jewish, said she could see Theresa May remaining Prime Minister until 2019, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
She suggested previous Tory governments would not have been as forgiving of their leader, adding: ‘In another time she’d have been gone on June 9 [after the general election].’
Asked whether the party leaders were different when the cameras were off, Miss Kuenssberg, 41, said Jeremy Corbyn and Mrs May were more themselves than previous leaders.
She said: ‘The camera is not always fair. Corbyn says what he thinks much of the time and is always one step away from tying what he is saying into his world view. May is much warmer in private and relaxed.’
Miss Kuenssberg said she had worked to convince Labour activist Bex Bailey to tell her story of being raped at a Labour event when she was 19. She said: ‘It is hard to tell where it is going to end up. There has been a stopper on the bottle for a long time.’
Last night, after Miss Kuensberg tweeted about Miss Bailey’s allegations, she was sent a series of abusive messages on Twitter. One internet user criticised her for allegedly ‘making it all about Labour’, while another accused her of ‘shocking bias, as usual’.
‘Unpleasant and personal’ BBC’s Laura hit by sexist abuse from pro-Corbyn trolls