Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle ‘threatened & sent grossly offensive picture of dead babies’ by constituent
SPEAKER Sir Lindsay Hoyle was forced to contact the police after he was threatened and sent “grossly offensive” messages by one of his constituents.
The veteran politician, who is standing for reelection in Chorley, Lancashire, was made aware of two “malicious” posts sent via email and Twitter.
One is believed to have included a picture of dead babies while the other included threatening language.
Mark Innes, who lives in Sir Lindsay’s constituency, has indicated a guilty plea to sending materials which “conveyed a threat for the purpose of causing distress or anxiety” and were “indecent or grossly offensive”.
Innes, 56, appeared at Leeds Magistrates Court in June charged with two counts under the Malicious Communications Act for the offences on December 2 and January 24.
He will be sentenced at Preston Magistrates Court on July 15 and is on conditional bail.
Sir Lindsay, 67, is running for reelection under the banner ‘Speaker for reelection’ and does not campaign on any political issues.
The Speaker generally runs unopposed by the major parties.
He will face a vote during the next parliament when the new cohort of MPs will vote to reelect him as Speaker of the House of Commons.
It comes as the threat of a terrorist attack on an MP during the general election campaign has been deemed as “substantial”.
A document, seen by The Sun, was sent to returning officers at councils across the country for distribution to election candidates.
The security briefing stated: “The threat from terrorism to the 2024 General Election (GE) remains MODERATE: an attack is possible but not likely. There is no information to suggest a credible threat to the GE.
“The threat to MPs remains SUBSTANTIAL: an attack is likely.”
In February Home Secretary James Cleverly announced new measures to tackle threats to MPs safety as part of a £31 million package.