I’m shocked and my sons are distressed... Corbyn on egg attack
Millionaire’s son, 31, is jailed for assault over Brexit
JEREMY Corbyn told of his distress after a Brexit supporter hit him with an egg and shouted: ‘Respect the vote!’
John Murphy, 31, attacked the Labour leader as he visited a mosque in his constituency less than a week after the party announced it would support a EU second referendum.
He was arrested shortly afterwards and found to have four more eggs on him.
Murphy, who is the son of a multi-millionaire property developer and lives in a £3million seven-bedroom house, admitted assault by beating yesterday. Jailing him for 28 days, Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot told him: ‘Attacks on our MPs must stop.’
Mr Corbyn, 69, revealed his ‘ shocked and surprised’ reaction to the attack in a 350-word victim impact statement read to Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London. Murphy’s solicitor said the statement was ‘slightly over-egged’.
Mr Corbyn said he was boosting his personal security as a result of the incident, which was caught on CCTV.
‘The assault was completely unprovoked and threatening,’ he said. ‘ My wife was sitting beside me and often feels very stressed on my behalf and became extremely distressed at this event. Colleagues present including Diane Abbott … were very shocked by it.
‘Whilst I’m adamant to make sure I am able to interact with people as I always have, I now have to be more cautious. We are now reviewing and increasing my security protection.
‘My three sons, who weren’t present, heard about the incident very quickly on social media. They were very stressed and distressed.’
The assault on March 3 came amid heightened tensions over Brexit as several Remain-sup-
‘I now have to be more cautious’
porting politicians reported receiving death threats.
Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger needed police protection at last September’s Labour conference in her home city of Liverpool after suffering antiSemitic abuse from some of Mr Corbyn’s supporters.
The Labour leader was visiting the Muslim Welfare Centre in North London with Miss Abbott, his shadow home secretary. Kevin Christie, prosecuting, said Mr Corbyn was sitting with his wife Laura Alvarez. ‘Suddenly, he felt a strike to the right side of his forehead.
‘He heard a male voice shouting “respect the vote!”.’
Mr Christie described it as an ‘unprovoked attack’, adding: ‘Assaults on public servants affect the very fabric of our democratic society.’ Malik Aldeiri, defending, said Mr Corbyn’s statement was ‘slightly over- egged’ as the Labour leader ‘himself hasn’t suffered any impact’. He added: ‘[Murphy] felt that his civil rights were violated.’ However, the chief magistrate said: ‘An attack like this is an attack on our democratic process.’
Murphy’s supporters in the public gallery gasped and burst into tears as he was jailed. They included his parents. Afterwards his sister Madeleine said the sentence was too harsh.
In the recent past, individuals who targeted politicians with eggs have avoided jail.
A student who pelted John Major in Eastleigh, Hampshire, in 1992, was fined £100 and ordered to pay the then-prime minister £10 for dry cleaning.
Former deputy prime minister John Prescott punched a man who threw an egg at him at a Labour rally in Rhyl, North Wales, in 2001. No charges were brought. A student who egged David Cameron at a college in Cornwall in 2010 was not charged.