Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner was “distressed and alarmed” after receiving abusive voicemails threatening to kill her and her son, a court has heard.
Elizabeth Harker, 63, of Luton, Bedfordshire, left Ms Rayner four voicemails via her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency office on 5 September 2025.
That was the same day that Ms Rayner resigned from the cabinet after it emerged she had not paid enough stamp duty on her £800,000 flat in Hove.
On Monday, in a victim impact statement that was read out at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Ms Rayner said she still could not bring herself to listen to the recording.
However, she had been told by her office manager that “the threats were made with malice”, she said.
Ms Rayner said she found the behaviour “unacceptable” and felt “distressed and alarmed” by the threats.
Ms Rayner added it “causes great stress and anxiety to all close to me”, including her sons, who are under 18 years old, and her staff.
Harker previously pleaded guilty to sending a communication that was “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character”.
Prosecutor Olivia Grist said the voicemails called Ms Rayner a “filthy whore” and a “slag”.
Another said “you don’t know what is coming to you”.
Harker also previously pleaded guilty to an offence of sending a communication with an indecent or offensive message.
The charge states she sent a letter “which conveyed a message which was indecent or grossly offensive for the purpose of causing distress”.
She was caught on a Ring security doorbell posting the offensive letter to the Luton home of Dorris Fortune on 2 November.
Harker was seen leaving the handwritten note, containing “abusive language”, at the door before running away, Ms Grist said.
It included slurs and comments such as “paedo” and “drop dead scrounge”.
In her victim impact statement, Ms Fortune said “whoever received this would be very distressed as it is [a] very offensive note”.
She said the note is “at the back of my mind and has made me feel anxious at home even when I have the dog with me”.
Harker’s defence lawyer Lewis Green told the court: “She has a long-established and entrenched history of alcohol misuse of the last 30 years.
“She tells me she has been able to moderate it.
“She tells me she is still drinking, though not to the extent previously.”
Harker was conditionally bailed and ordered to undergo alcohol treatment assessment ahead of being sentenced on 24 March.
She was also told that restraining orders had been proposed by the prosecution as part of that sentencing hearing.
Ms Rayner did not attend Monday’s court hearing.
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