MP Jess Phillips 'at risk' over Shamima Begum fake headline tweet

Jess Phillips has been the target of abuse throughout her time in politics

Labour MP Jess Phillips says a faked newspaper headline in which she appears to claim Shamima Begum would make a "fine MP" has put her life in danger.

The member for Birmingham Yardley said the Twitter post - made to look like she had penned a Guardian opinion piece - was "designed to incite hatred".

Ms Begum left the UK as a schoolgirl to join the Islamic State group in Syria in 2015.

Ms Phillips said she had contacted Twitter over the anonymous posting.

In a series of tweets, Ms Phillips said the post had put her, her family and staff "at risk of violence".

The false headline included an image of the MP, purporting to display an opinion piece for the paper with the headline: "Whilst some around her were losing their heads, Shamima Begum kept hers - she would make a fine Labour MP."

Ms Phillips said she had contacted Twitter Support as the post may have reached an audience of millions, but she had no further recourse as it came from an anonymous account.

People who saw the headline had shared it in good faith, "without realising the sinister motives" behind it, she added.

"Had it been in any publication I could act, but as it is I am left just to deal with the fallout and aggression. This has got to change," she tweeted.

Twitter has been contacted for comment.

Last week, the Court of Appeal ruled that Ms Begum, now 20, should be allowed to return to the UK to fight the decision to remove her British citizenship.

She was one of three schoolgirls who left London to join the Islamic State group.

Ms Begum was 15 and living in Bethnal Green, London, when she left the UK

Her citizenship was revoked by the Home Office on security grounds after she was found in a refugee camp in 2019.

Ms Phillips has previously spoken about the personal abuse she has faced during her career.

The high-profile MP told BBC News last year that the police had to be called to her house three times over one weekend amid a "massive recent increase" in personal abuse following a Commons debate on Parliamentary language.

In October, a 36-year-old man from Birmingham was fined by magistrates after he shouted "is this the fascist party offices?" outside the MP's office in Acocks Green.