Diane Abbott has pleaded with Labour Party activists not to abuse Laura Kuenssberg after the BBC journalist was forced to get a bodyguard for conference.
The shadow home secretary said it is ‘just wrong’ that the BBC’s political editor is targeted and told the trolls ‘just don’t do it’.
The journalist enlisted security for the party’s conference after she faced a barrage of vile abuse by fanatical Corbynistas online.
A string of leading Labour MPs have condemned the vitriolic attacks but Jeremy Corbyn has faced criticism for not doing enough to call off his activists.
Ms Abbott told a fringe event at the Labour Party conference in Brighton that those behind the abuse stop.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, pictured at the Labour Party conference yesterday, slammed activists who have abused BBC journalist Laura Kuensberg telling them ‘just don’t do it’
Ms Kuenssberg, pictured at Labour conference in Brighton today, has suffered a wave of abuse from Corbynista trolls. Her bodyguard is thought to be a former soldier who works for a security firm used by the BBC
Labour MP Jess Phillips hit out at the abuse the BBC’s political editor is receiving and said Labour are ‘hypocrites’ if ‘we ignore abuse when it comes from our alies’
She said: ‘Don’t do it. Just don’t do it. There is a positive case to make on Jeremy online, make that positive case. You don’t have to be abusing other people.
‘People need to think, “you know what, I’m going to put out a positive tweet about Jeremy, I won’t put out something unpleasant about Laura Kuenssberg”.’
‘Laura is doing a job, I may not always like how she does the job every time, but it is her job and why – just because she is a woman journalist – does she get that level of abuse. It’s wrong.’
The shadow home secretary has previously told of the shocking level of hate and threats she has received online.
Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, also slammed those behind the vitriolic attacks.
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, pictured at Labour conference in Brighton today, has been pictured with a man thought to be her bodyguard (left)
Ms Kuenssberg was with Mr McDonnell this morning as he was interviewed by the BBC during his broadcast round
She said on Twitter this morning that the reports about Ms Kuenssberg ‘makes me sad’.
She added: ‘In 2017 women cannot feel safe at work. If we ignore abuse when it comes from our allies we are hypocrites.’
Labour MP Harriet Harman, the party’s former deputy leader, told BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour: ‘We should value as a fundamental part of our democracy that we have independent political journalism.
Derby North MP Chris Williamson denied that Labour activists were responsible for abuse that has forced Ms Kuenssberg to get a bodyguard for Labour conference
‘I don’t want any reporter, men or women, to be looking over their shoulder and fearing that what they are going to be broadcasting in the evening television because somehow there is going to be a backlash of abuse or even threats of violence.’
She said it is outrageous that some people want to ‘silence’ women adding: ‘I think it’s chilling that at Labour Party conference the BBC political editor feels she needs protection.’
Former frontbencher Clive Lewis, who worked as a BBC political reporter before entering Parliament, also hit out at the abuse.
Mr Lewis told delegates in Brighton: ‘I think it’s a disgrace that any woman needs to have bodyguards at conference – absolute disgrace.’
The Norwich South MP added: ‘Play the ball not the player. Argue with what she has to say – don’t threaten her. We are not like that. That’s not how we roll on the left.
‘Whatever you think of her journalism – threaten that, don’t threaten her.’
But while many Labour MPs have condemned the abuse, a close Corbyn ally tried to brush of criticisms by suggesting the Left is being ‘demonised’ over the vile abuse.
Derby North MP Chris Williamson rejected the idea that any Labour supporters were to blame.
He told TalkRadio it was ‘appalling’ that Ms Kuenssberg felt she needed protection.
But he took issue with presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer saying the Left were behind the abuse.
‘It is a convenient thing to say, to try to demonise people on the Left,’ Mr Williamson said.
Mr Williamson said it ‘certainly’ was not Labour members responsible because they were ‘caring’ people and would not ‘indulge’ in threats of violence.
Ms Kuenssberg was hissed by Labour supporters when she asked the Mr Corbyn a question during the EU referendum campaign