John McDonnell has said he has received death threats and is seeking advice from police about better security for his family. Speaking to the BBC’s PM programme, the shadow chancellor hit out at the abuse suffered by MPs online. “You get used to death threats after a while,” he said. “I had a meeting with the police on Monday morning because I had a couple of emails from someone.
“Once you get one, you think, ‘Oh, never mind,’ but once they’ve followed it up, that triggered the meeting with the cops. They came in just to give some advice and they have done this thing about more security at the office, and they met my wife just to sort out the security at home. It’s appalling and it shouldn’t be in politics.”
Yvette Cooper recently launched a campaign called Reclaim the Internet fighting back against online bullying, highlighting in particular the misogynistic abuse levelled at many women in and outside politics.
McDonnell stressed that disciplinary action would be taken against any party member threatening MPs, after several said they had been abused online by people purporting to be activists because of their votes for airstrikes against Isis in Syria.
His disclosure of the death threats highlights the fact that it is not only the pro-airstrikes group of Labour MPs suffering abuse online.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has repeatedly said there is no room in the party for bad behaviour online and that it is currently drawing up a social media code of conduct for activists.
In the wide-ranging interview, McDonnell repeated promises that the leadership would not support deselections of sitting MPs, and hinted at a possible return to an official role for Chuka Umunna, the former shadow business secretary, who said he would not serve on Corbyn’s frontbench.
