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Boris Johnson has refused to apologise to an MP who was targeted with “toxic” online abuse after he dismissed her concerns over safety in politics as “humbug”.
Labour MP Paula Sherriff last month pleaded with the prime minister not to use words like “surrender” in the Brexit debate, claiming such inflammatory language was fueling abuse and death threats towards MPs.
On Monday night, the Labour MP again challenged Johnson on the issue, saying she received more than 100 toxic tweets an hour in the aftermath of their clash, including one which suggested she should be “strung up”.
But the PM refused to apologise, insisting he would only do so when Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell said sorry for in 2014 calling for Tory minister Esther McVey to be “lynched”.
In another heated Commons debate, this time on whether to have a general election before Christmas, Sherriff intervened to raise concerns over whether MPs could “trust the prime minister with our safety” in the campaign.
Quoting analysis of more than 2m tweets in the Financial Times, she said she received “toxic tweets at a rate of more than 100 an hour” following the “humbug” clash.
She went on: “One such tweet from that evening read ‘tough shit Mrs Shrek, a surrender bill or surrender act is exactly what Benn’s treacherous act is’.
“Another read ‘do what the people told you to effing do otherwise yes, expect to be strung up, metaphorically or physically’.
“The prime minister has never apologise for saying what he said that evening so how can we trust him that we can be safe?”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn then invited Johnson to apologise because the treatment Sherriff received was “disgusting by any standards”.
Eventually, the PM intervened with a point of order: “I’ll happily apologise if the shadow chancellor would for instance apologise for inviting the population to lynch the secretary of state for work and pensions.”
“Well, sorry seems to be the hardest word doesn’t it,” Corbyn replied.
The night in September when Sherriff and Johnson clashed was widely seen as one of the most bad-tempered debates in recent parliamentary history.
Amid pleas from friends of the murdered MP Jo Cox to tone down his language, Johnson controversially stressed the best way to honour the former Labour politician’s memory was to “get Brexit done”.