Kemi Badenoch has called for a crackdown on threats against politicians after revealing she received death threats from a former IRA member.
The Conservative leader said the abuse, which was also directed at her family, was “really tough” but insisted she would not be deterred from politics.
Kieran Kyle, 43, admitted two counts last month of sending communications of an indecent or offensive nature to Ms Badenoch and her family. He is due to be sentenced on 29 October.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that Kyle wrote to Ms Badenoch: “When I was in the IRA I would have shot you f****** dead.” He also sent an email to her husband, Hamish, containing racist references.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Badenoch said: “A man, an ex-IRA member, has pleaded guilty to threatening to kill me and he was sending messages not just to me, but also to my family members.”
She added: “I just think that whether it’s Nigel Farage or even Keir Starmer who had his home firebombed, that there is a threat to politicians that is increasing and we just need to crack down on this.”
Ms Badenoch said MPs had often faced threats but “must not let that stop us from doing our jobs”. Asked how she coped with the abuse, she said: “I’m not going to be put off politics. It’s really tough, but you just have to get on with it.”
Her comments came as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said abuse directed at her family during the 2024 election campaign had briefly made her question whether she wanted to remain in politics.
Ms Mahmood said her father had received “hardcore abuse” while campaigning for her in Birmingham. Although police were called, she said, “nothing happened”.
She told The Rest Is Politics that opponents had sought to make it “impossible for me to move around Birmingham”. She said it was her father being abused on the streets while campaigning, rather than the abuse directed at her personally, that made her think: “I’m not sure about politics any more.”
The warnings came amid further cases involving politicians. Joshua Kerry, 28, who has been charged with the murder of former Tory minister and Reform spokesman Ann Widdecombe, was charged on Friday with preparing acts of terror against Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
In June, two Ukrainian men were jailed for conspiring to carry out arson attacks on behalf of Russia against a property and car owned by then prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Katie Amess, whose father Sir David Amess was murdered by an Islamic State supporter in 2021, said politicians remained at risk. Ahead of the fifth anniversary of his death, she questioned whether enough had changed, saying: “If so much has changed, why are we still seeing other MPs or former MPs being targeted like this?”
