Luciana Berger has revealed she has called in police after receiving a torrent of abuse and threats from “people purporting to be of the left” following her request to Jeremy Corbyn’s office to explain his comments about an antisemitic mural.
The Labour MP said one message sent to her by someone believed to be a member of the party suggested she should take her own life and her called her a ‘Tory c***. Threatening phone calls have also been received by Ms Berger’s staff.
The Liverpool Wavertree MP wrote:” Last week I received a torrent of abuse from people purporting to be of the left.
“One person told me: ‘Momentum will be watching you Luciana’. One email urged me to ‘resign or perhaps kill yourself so that an actual Labour MP can take your place, Tory c***’.”
Ms Berger said she had identified four different strands of abuse directed towards her.
Some had accused her of “faux antisemite outrage” after her request that Mr Corbyn, the Labour leader, explain his support for the artist who painted the mural depicting Jewish bankers displayed in East London in 2012.
Further attacks directed towards her suggested there was ”truth” in the claim that banks were run by Jews.
Thirdly, it was falsely suggested that Ms Berger was a “paid-up Israeli lobby operative” – while further of abusive messages included menacing and sometimes violent threats of deselection from activists proporting to be supporters of Momentum.
Writing for the Sunday Times Ms Berger revealed staff working at her constituency office had faced a barrage of abusive telephone calls last week.
She said: “I also have a responsibility to my staff.
“Their time last week was largely taken up with contending with people calling my office and literally screaming down the phone.
“They’ve had to give statements to the police about the threats they’ve been on the receiving end of, and been exposed to violent emails and messages on my social media. I’m very concerned about the impact it has had on them.”