Prominent Brexit supporters including the Conservative leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, have been sent death threats by an anonymous source who signed off as “the real 48%”.
Four letters that appear to have been sent by a remain supporter were reported to police on Monday. Six leave donors received correspondence last week.
Leadsom accused the sender of being a coward for failing to include their name on the note, and described the act as “pretty despicable”.
Pretty despicable whoever sent me this. We live in a democracy- death threats because you don’t agree? And unsigned? coward... pic.twitter.com/ERnRvvVxWo
— Andrea Leadsom MP (@andrealeadsom) February 12, 2018
The letter said: “If you attempt to take away part of someone’s identity, there are consequences. We have watched as you have led us to the edge of the abyss. We will watch no longer. You have taken lives on our side. Now we will take lives on yours. We are coming for you.”
Where the return address would normally be displayed, the sender wrote: “We were born in Britain, we live in the UK, we are European.”
The Conservative party chairman, Brandon Lewis, called it “reprehensible behaviour”.
Reprehensible behaviour by whoever did this. So important we all debate with respect, robust is one thing but this is totally unacceptable. Why we are having a respect Pledge, hope @UKLabour will eventually sign up too. https://t.co/sjCPISs87o
— Brandon Lewis (@BrandonLewis) February 12, 2018
Earlier letters to donors were revealed by the blogger Guido Fawkes and read: “You have stoked the fires of Brexit and led us to this moment. You can no longer be tolerated. We are coming for you. We are going to kill you.”
Last week, Theresa May said abuse in public life had become so severe it was threatening democracy. Pro-EU MPs including Anna Soubry and Dominic Grieve have also received hateful correspondence.
May said she was considering introducing a specific offence of intimidating a political candidate. But Labour’s Diane Abbott, who faced an onslaught of abuse during the general election last year and before, said there was no need for special rules for MPs because there were already laws around violence, threats, intimidation, harassment and stalking.
