Anna Soubry: Police should 'do their job' to stop MP abuse
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A female Conservative MP was subjected to a vile attack yesterday when a box of faeces was left outside her office. A police investigation was launched after the parcel was found outside the constituency workplace of Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie.
The box is thought to have included a degrading message that said: “If you don’t clean up your own sh** why should I?”
Ms Baillie attacked the “nastiness” aimed at those who enter politics.
She said the incident was “the latest in many attempts to intimidate and harass herself and staff” and that such abuse risked putting people off from running to be an MP.
“There are plenty of ways to make a point about politics or governments without resorting to putting excrement in a box,” she said.
“Because of the nastiness we face, many decent people are thinking twice about standing for public office.”
A spokesperson for Gloucestershire constabulary said: “We are investigating an allegation of harassment after an offensive item was left outside Ms Baillie’s constituency office.”
The backbench MP, who was first elected in 2019, has previously been targeted in her job.
She was subjected to an onslaught of abuse after she took maternity leave in 2020.
Her time off roughly coincided with when Dominic Cummings was caught having broken lockdown rules by travelling from London to County Durham.
One person wrote: “Why will my MP not respond to me, given the gravity of the Cummings affair and the impact this is having on public trust.
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“I don’t care that she has just given birth.”
Another said: “I asked for Siobhan’s viewpoint. I WANT SIOBHAN’s.
“Having a baby is not an excuse for not responding to my email.”
Meanwhile, a third constituent described Ms Baillie being on maternity leave as a “dereliction of duty”.
The package sent to Ms Baillie yesterday comes amid concern at the sheer scale of abuse being faced by MPs.
Earlier this year a survey of 60 politicians by Channel 4 Dispatches found nearly all had received abuse or threatening messages, and three-quarters said they had been threatened with physical harm.
It also found a third of female MPs had been threatened with sexual violence.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has previously urged for kinder a politics that brings “an end to hatred” against MPs.
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