MP scared election candidates will face personal attacks

Caroline Nokes MP says candidates need to be "alert" over the coming weeks

An MP has said she is fearful for candidates' safety in the upcoming general election campaign.

Caroline Nokes, Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North, said she was "scared" those standing for election would come under personal attack.

She said she feared people were angry and some had "been radicalised".

Urging candidates to be "alert" over the coming weeks, she said: "This election can be conducted with decency and courtesy. I fear it won't be."

In November 2020, Wajid Shah, from Slough, Berkshire, was jailed after emailing Ms Nokes - along with Theresa May, Lord Blunkett, Baroness Lister, MP Tan Dhesi and former MP Mark Lancaster - with death threats.

Speaking on BBC Radio Solent, Ms Nokes said: "Every day I receive hate emails and messages from people who despise me just because I am a woman or want to attack me because they disagree with me politically but they do so by making rape threats, by making weird allegations.

"It's going to be a weird election and I am sure there will be all sorts of very strange people behaving in very odd ways."

Five weeks of general election campaigning for the 650 seats in Parliament will get under way after Parliament is formally shut down on 30 May.