“ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM”: UK’S RAAB SLAMS HATE SPEECH AGAINST MPS

Mon 18 October 2021:

On Monday, UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said that the amount of online hate speech directed at members of parliament is “out of control,” and he called for an end to the vilification of lawmakers.

Conservative congressman David Amess was stabbed to death in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, last Friday during a meeting with constituents. The attack is being treated as terrorism by the police, who have arrested a 25-year-old man with British citizenship.

“The elephant in the room of all this is the amount of online hate that we all get is out of control,” Raab told Sky news.

Raab said he had had three threats to “life and limb” over the past two years.

He told BBC Breakfast: “There will be people who have worse abuse than me, and I particularly feel for the female MPs, and I know colleagues of mine who have come off, for example, Twitter because it’s just so vile.

“I have had three threats to life and limb over the last two years.”

He then noted that Home Secretary Priti Patel is considering amending the law on a right to anonymity on social media, which is aimed at stopping the abuse members of parliament face online.

“I’m a free speech man, I want to defend that to my dying days but, at the same time, I think the amount of abuse, the vilification directed at MPs, particularly female MPs, has got to stop,” Raab said.

Another high-profile attack on a UK legislator in 2016 sparked a debate about the need to reassess the protection of lawmakers. Prior to the Brexit referendum, Thomas Mair shot and stabbed MP Jo Cox, believing her “stay” stance to be treacherous.

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