Jess Philips MP has told The Huffington Post UK she submitted “96 pages of abuse” she has received to a Labour Party investigation.
The investigation, she said, was kicked off after Yvette Cooper called for a new rule within the Labour Party: that where there is “serious abuse, intimidation or harassment online, members face expulsion from the Party”. It follows escalating harassment of MPs by Labour members.
During the ‘Reclaim The Internet’ conference today at the TUC in London, Philips tweeted about some of the abuse she has received:
Labour MP Luciana Berger also shared some of the antisemitic tweets sent her:
Cooper has criticized Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of initiative in dealing with the behaviour of the Labour membership. “As leader, Jeremy Corbyn should have done this himself instead of just warm words,” she has said, talking of her campaign.
He has yet to lend Cooper’s initiative his public support, and it is not yet clear whether he supports it within the party. “I don’t know whether he has responded to Yvette’s campaign”, Stella Creasy told The Huffington Post UK.
During the conference other public figures opened up about abuse they have suffered online. Charlene White, an ITN presenter who started receiving online harassment over her decision not to wear a poppy on air, said “I haven’t received this kind of racism since I first appeared on TV”.
“When I did my first broadcast I had someone call in and say ‘why is the BBC employing black presenters? Is it because they’ve run out of white ones?’”
Now, she said, online harassers again reduce her to her race and gender. “Because I have boobs and because I am black”, she said, “I get abuse”.
She revealed one abuser recently “went after” her younger sister. The man lived nearby, she said. “I had to vary my route to work.”
She said she has not let it get her down. “People wouldn’t have the balls to say this to me on the street”, she said.
SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh said “I have about 100 files of complaints with the police. There are four instances out of those 100 files that meet the threshold for prosecution.”
“I get things like – go off and do things to camels. People expect you to deal with it.”