Labour MP Dawn Butler has closed her constituency office in north-west London after threats against her and staff “dramatically escalated”.
The Brent Central MP said bricks have been hurled through the windows of her small office on High Road, Willesden, and staff have been attacked inside.
She said in a letter to constituents that “continual security risk” as well as spiralling rent costs forced her to abandon the office, which opened in 2015.
“I continue to receive on an almost daily basis threats of violence and death threats,” the former shadow women’s and equalities minister wrote.
“My staff have been attacked in the office, verbally assaulted coming and going from work, bricks have been thrown through the windows and the frontage has been smashed.
“I have had to work extensively with police and security staff to simply try and create a safe working environment for my employees. Many of these incidents were not made public in order to not encourage copycat attacks.”
She said police have arrested one person in connection with the threats and are “currently pursuing others”. In July 2018, a missile was thrown at her constituency office window.
Last month Ms Butler went to police after speaking out over the torrent of violent and racist abuse she has received for defending the Black Lives Matter protests.
One email reportedly sent to her said “There will come a time when you can’t breath[e], and we will all be happy,” while another allegedly said: “Come the revolution you will be one of the first.”
In the letter to constituents, she also said the office “was not a large enough space to be Covid-19 safe” and “could not allow for adequate social distancing”.
She added that she did not want to burden the taxpayer with “increasingly unaffordable” rent costs for the office, which is publicly funded - as with all MPs - through the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) which sets budgets.
Ms Butler stressed that she is “dealing with more constituency cases than ever before” and will hold surgeries in the local civic centre, Willesden Library, Harlesden Library and other venues around Brent Central when it is safe.
