Death threat MP says social media abuse must stop

Carol Monaghan is asking why people should have to accept vicious online abuse as "part of the job"

A Scottish MP who moved herself to a safe house after a death threat has said she is "shocked and upset" by the death of Sir David Amess.

The Tory MP had been meeting constituents in Essex on Friday when he was stabbed multiple times and killed.

Carol Monaghan, the SNP MP for Glasgow North West, said MPs and MSPs had become the focus of people's anger.

She blamed social media for intensifying the problem and "emboldening" people to make threats.

The MP said social media companies had failed to take action to tackle online abuse and it needed to be cleaned up.

• MP's stalker banned from contact for five years

• MP moved to safe house after death threat

In June, Ms Monaghan told the BBC she feared for her and her family's lives when online abuse turned into a detailed threat.

Earlier in the month Jonathan Bell, 35, admitted his behaviour caused her "fear or alarm" between January and April 2019.

At the time, Ms Monaghan called for social media companies to take action to end misogynistic abuse.

Twitter said it took action against accounts which violate rules on abuse and harassment.

Sir David Amess was killed during a constituency surgery

Ms Monaghan told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that Sir David Amess was an "utterly dedicated person and passionate about his constituency and the people he served".

She said he was "very well-liked across the chamber", despite political differences.

Ms Monaghan said MPs were told that abuse and threats "goes with the territory and they should grow a thick skin".

"I have to say 'why should i have to?," she said. "Why should my family or any other MP's family be put in danger?"

She added: "When you have threats made against you it takes you to a very dark place and you start questioning the reasons why you are doing this particular job."

Ms Monaghan's constituency office was attacked

Ms Monaghan said that the restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic had shown there were different ways of working.

She said she had done more case work over the past 18 months but there had been fewer face-to-face contacts and more phone calls or Zoom calls.

"I'm not saying there isn't a place for face-to-face surgeries but I think we have to be careful about being utterly accessible at all times," she said.

Ms Monaghan said that although the attack on Sir David had not originated on social media she thought it had "definitely intensified" the toxic atmosphere around politics.

'Duty to act'

"People are emboldened by others on social media," she said. "When someone makes a comment, others pile-on on the back of it.

"So people feel as though they are incited to do something. I think social media very definitely makes the situation worse."

She said action should be taken by social media companies.

"I have raised threats that have been made against me on social media and I have been told it is not a threat.

"I have had hideous language used against me and I have been told that does not fall foul of the guidelines.

"Social media providers very definitely have a duty to act. It is not just politicians who bear the brunt of this. It is anybody on the public eye becomes a target of threats and abuse on social media and we need to clean it up."