Air of menace as Britain’s election gets nasty

International Live: Candidates hoping to be elected to parliament in Britain have faced all manner of threats and abuse in a particularly hostile campaign, with some worried for their safety when out canvassing.

When one man on Facebook threatened a violent attack on Dominic Graham, the would-be MP immediately called the police, who made an arrest. It was far from an isolated case in the run-up to Thursday’s snap polls, called on the increasingly divisive issue of Brexit.

Graham is standing for the third time for the centrist, pro-EU Liberal Democrats, who want to cancel Brexit altogether. “We didn’t see anything close to the threats we’ve been getting in this campaign,” he told AFP, comparing 2019 with his previous election bids.

When he went knocking on doors in a residential part of Braintree, a town in Essex, northeast of London, he made sure he was accompanied by a fellow Lib Dem activist, in line with police and party security instructions.

Ever since entering parliament in 2017, the German-born Wera Hobhouse, standing for the Lib Dems in Bath, southwest England, has received a stream of anonymous letters. She informs the police of her campaign movements and always carries an alarm button in her pocket.

The number of alleged crimes reported by MPs more than doubled from 151 in 2017 to 342 last year, senior police chief Neil Basu told a parliamentary committee in May. The first four months of 2019 saw a 90 percent year-on-year increase to 152 a trend on course to lead to “certainly over 450 crimes this year”, he said.

He is campaigning on unfavourable territory as the Braintree constituency voted heavily in favour of Britain’s departure from the European Union. Conservative Party co-chairman James Cleverly is the favourite to retain his seat, winning last time with 63 percent of the vote.

Several MPs, including two who served in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet, Amber Rudd and Nicky Morgan, are not standing again, citing threats and harassment.

As for the source of the threats, “many of them are from the more right- wing, very Brexit side who see some politicians as being traitors to that”, said analyst Alexandra Kellert, from the global risk consultancy Control Risks. Lib Dem candidate Rhian O’Connor does not feel particularly concerned when
she goes doorknocking after dark in Greenwich, a “Remain”-backing area of
southeast London.

“She gets the full brunt of the abuse and threats,” he said, adding: “Abusive messages and comments coming at such a rate that she can’t delete them fast enough.”

Dhaka 08 December (campuslive24.com)//IHA

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