A Tory MP has told the Commons how a member of his staff was threatened with hanging during an attack on his constituency office.
Luke Graham – who represents Ochil and South Perthshire – said that two individuals approached his office on Wednesday night “banging on the windows” and shouting at the lone employee inside.
He explained: “She was told: ‘In an independent Scotland, all of you will be hanging and we will be there at the front cheering them on. I can’t wait to come and drag you from this office and get you to the noose.’”
Asking Commons speaker John Bercow about what could be done to protect constituency staff, Graham said: “If she was here now, she would say she was a tough St Ninians woman who was happy to take them – but she shouldn’t have to.”
Bercow condemned the alleged attack as “despicable behaviour”. “I am very sorry for what a ghastly experience his staffer has undergone,” he told the House. “It should not happen to anyone.”
Calling for “political difference, personal amiability”, Bercow added: “People who think because they disagree with somebody’s views they have a right to subject them to bile, calumny, vituperation and violence need to be shown that that is not acceptable and that where they’re breaking the law, its full force will be applied to them.”
Graham’s account comes just weeks after Labour frontbencher Angela Rayner and Tory Brexiteer Nadine Dorries both revealed they had installed panic alarms in their homes following threats.