MP gets death threat after “dangerous” accusations over Ukraine statement

Zarah Sultana has said comments around a Stop the War statement criticising NATO – signed by her and ten other backbench Labour MPs – “crossed the line from false to dangerous” after she received a death threat.

Taking to social media on Friday afternoon, the Labour MP for Coventry South revealed that she had been the victim of a “horrific and absurd attack” in the form of an email “filled with racist abuse” describing her as “Putin’s whore”.

Sultana, along with Diane Abbott, John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Ian Lavery, Beth Winter, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Apsana Begum, Mick Whitley, Tahir Ali and Ian Mearns, had signed a statement by the Stop the War Coalition.

The 11 MPs pulled their support from the statement on Thursday after being urged to do so by Labour’s chief whip and because, LabourList understands, it was thought they would have the whip withdrawn if they refused to do so.

The declaration stated that “Russia and Ukraine should reach a diplomatic settlement of the tensions between them” and that NATO should “call a halt to its eastward expansion”. It also refuted “the idea that NATO is a defensive alliance”.

It criticised the British government for sending arms to Ukraine and for having “talked up the threat of war continually”. Keir Starmer has been strongly supportive of the UK government supporting Ukraine via military equipment and training.

The statement from February 18th was also signed by Labour Unions chair and ASLEF train drivers’ union general secretary Mick Whelan, plus independent MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Claudia Webbe, who have not removed their names.

Sultana put out a statement highlighting that BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Radio had been forced to apologise for alleging that the MPs had “suggested NATO is responsible for the crisis in Ukraine” and that LBC broadcaster Iain Dale had described the MPs as “fifth columnists”.

The Labour MP wrote: “Like all my colleagues, I am horrified at the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I stand with the people of Ukraine and have unequivocally condemned Putin’s actions; I loathe his authoritarian, nationalist and right-wing regime.”

She also said the Conservatives leader in Coventry described her as an “agitator for Putin’s Russia”, while a Labour source said the signatories to the Stop the War statement were acting as a “mouthpiece of the Kremlin”.

“I must make clear at this stage that these accusations have crossed the line from false to dangerous. As an MP, it is impossible to forget that two of my colleagues have been assassinated in recent years,” Sultana wrote.

“This McCarthyite environment doesn’t just increase the threat of violence to public figures. It also threatens to weaken our democracy, radically narrowing political debate and silencing dissent to establishment opinion. This is deeply unhealthy for our society and must be challenged.”

Sultana told her followers that she has reported the most recent death threat to the police and contacted Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds to “emphasise the seriousness of ‘party sources’ disseminating dangerous and irresponsible messages”.