Labour MP Jess Phillips feels ‘worried and frightened’ after office attack and death threats
Labour MP Jess Phillips has revealed she feels “jumpy and worried and frightened” after a man was arrested on Thursday outside her constituency office for allegedly “banging the windows” and shouting “fascist”.
She also revealed she has had a number of death threats, including one that told her to “be afraid, be very afraid”.
A sign in the windows of the MP for Birmingham Yardley’s office reads: “Sorry. We’re closed today on security advice. Surgery tonight has been cancelled.”
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“I feel desperately upset,” Phillips told Sky News. “As I pull up to my office my constituents are having to be turned away… I just feel like they’re suffering and that’s annoyed me.
“The rational part of my brain says that I’m probably okay, but yeah, I feel jumpy and worried and frightened.
“I am worried for my family, although they would tell [me] that they’re fine and that it’s fine,” she said.
She revealed one of the emails sent to her, which has been forwarded to the police.
It reads: “Unless you change your attitude, be afraid, be very afraid… wherever you are, keep looking over your shoulder. The person standing behind you may not be friendly. You and your Remain friends have been warned.”
She said: “The other thing that happened yesterday is that all day the phones in my Westminster [office] had to eventually be switched off because the line was being jammed with people.
“I won’t say what they were shouting because I’m not sure it’s fit for the television, but using words like ‘traitor’,” she added.
When asked if she’s received death threats, Phillips said: “Yes, lots. There’s at least ten people threatening me in some way or another… death or violence of some sort.”
The 36-year-old-man who was arrested on Thursday outside her office remains in custody and West Midlands Police have today been questioning staff that saw the incident.
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Phillips said: “I shall carry on serving the people. I’ll be alright. I know that everybody wants me to sit and say that I blame Boris Johnson. I think that he isn’t helping.
“The problem is that this is being inflamed by our current politics and we all have a responsibility to dial it down. So, yes, I have behaved badly in the past in the chamber. That has never filtered into the streets.
“I don’t blame Boris Johnson, but if he doesn’t change his strategy, I absolutely will.”