A manhunt is under way after Stella Creasy, the Labour politician, had the windows of her office smashed and the words “Labour child bombing liars” graffitied on the pavement outside (Evening Standard, Mail, Telegraph).
The former MP for Walthamstow in north-east London said that she would not be intimidated and that those responsible “do not belong in the political process”.
The Metropolitan Police is investigating, and Creasy said voters in the constituency would “not be cowed or influenced by violence”.
It is understood that a hammer was used to break the windows and the same individual then scrawled graffiti, reading: “F*** your weasel words this is genocide. Labour child bombing Liars. 2001, 2003, 2024.”
On Sunday, police issued an image of a suspect dressed all in black with a hood up and gloves on.
Posting pictures of the damage on social media, Creasy said: “Message to whoever attacked my office last night. You don’t intimidate me, and you don’t belong in the political process.”
Creasy, who is currently campaigning to keep her seat on 4th July, also revealed that “malicious and false” leaflets had also been handed out in her constituency since Saturday night’s attack concerning the Middle East crisis.
“Police already on this to find you – will press for the strongest penalties for such an anti-democratic attack and I know Walthamstow won’t be cowed or influenced by your violence either,” she wrote on X.
Scotland Yard confirmed an investigation has been launched into criminal damage caused to a “political candidate’s office in Orford Road, Walthamstow”.
According to the Times, the Met did not class the incident as a hate crime on Sunday, but said an investigation was under way into criminal damage.
In February, Creasy said the abuse she has faced as an MP, including threats of rape and death and a brick through her office window, were indicative of a serious threat to democracy.
“Unless we take responsibility for addressing this,” she wrote in the Guardian, “the outcome will not simply be that the loudest voices and largest wallets win: democracy will lose.”
She added: “What we are seeing now is not simply a livelier version of public life. You cannot have free speech if 50% of a conversation is spent living in fear that saying no will mean a risk of harm to either yourself or someone you love.”
While the motive for the attack is unknown, like a number of Labour MPs , Creasy has faced pressure over the party’s stance on the conflict in Gaza.
News of the attack on Creasy’s constituency office comes after MPs from both main parties revealed they have faced harassment, intimidation, threats of violence and actual violence for the ‘crime’ of being seen by extremists to be directly or indirectly supporting Israel since the country’s military response to Hamas’s October 7th terrorist attack on its southern Kibbutzim.
In a House of Commons debate on rising antisemitism in the UK back in February, Sir Michael Ellis, the Conservative former attorney general, flagged the horrendous threats levelled at MPs as a result of the Gaza conflict. “The aggressive hounding by protesters of MPs, especially Labour MPs out campaigning and a Conservative colleague at his home [Tobias Ellwood], is a real threat to the democratic process,” he said.
As if on cue, a few days later the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, broke with Parliamentary convention to allow Labour MPs to vote for an amendment to an SNP motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza over fears for the safety of MPs.
The SNP had been hoping to split the Parliamentary Labour Party by tabling a motion calling for an “immediate” ceasefire, which the Party opposes but which some Labour MPs support.
But because the Speaker allowed them to vote on Labour’s amendment to the motion, which called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” but made a longer ceasefire contingent on Hamas releasing the Israeli hostages, the Party avoided an embarrassing rebellion.
The Speaker apparently agreed to this – despite being warned by the House of Commons clerk that to do so would break with Parliamentary convention for such opposition day debates – because of genuine fears over the safety of Labour MPs who have faced threats from pro-Palestine – and pro-Hamas – supporters over Labour’s hesitation on calling for a ceasefire.
According to this line of reasoning, in the absence of being able to vote on their own party’s amendment, loyal Labour MPs would have felt obliged to vote against the SNP motion and that, in turn, could have led to violent reprisals against them and their families by Muslim extremists.
That may sound far-fetched, but Hoyle explicitly said that he had acted out of fears for “the safety of MPs and their families”. We also know that on the night of the Gaza debate, Sky News political editor Beth Rigby wrote on X: “Am told that many MPs made personal pleas to Sir Lindsay about amendments. MPs’ have growing concerns for personal safety after incidents of confrontations & protests over Israel-Hamas.”
Sir Lindsay’s intervention came in the wake of the resignation of Mike Freer, the MP for the constituency with one of the UK’s largest Jewish communities. Freer has faced abuse, harassment, intimidation, and a series of death threats from Islamic extremists since first being elected in 2010 as the MP for the north London constituency of Finchley and Golders Green.
He was also targeted by Muslim fanatic Ali Harbi Ali – the man who went on to stab Southend West MP Sir David Amess to death in 2021 at a constituency surgery for the ‘crime’ of being a member of Conservative Friends of Israel, and supporting air strikes against the Islamic State.
Freer suffered his first serious death threat in 2011, a year after Labour MP Stephen Timms was targeted by Roshonara Choudhry. The 21-year-old student stabbed Timms twice at an East London community hall, and later told police she had been inspired by al-Qaida, and wanted to “punish” him for voting for the invasion of Iraq.
The former Justice Minister said the “final straw” was an incident last Christmas Eve when his office was set ablaze in an arson attack that he describes as having “melted the phones, melted the computer screens, and caused the ceiling to collapse”. In the aftermath of that attack, Freer received an email describing him as “the kind of person who deserved to be set alight”. Following police advice, at that point the former MP started wearing a knife-proof vest when attending constituency events.
