MP tells Labour leader to kick out ‘abuser’

A post written by the Labour boss on X (Twitter) recently, which attracted more than 1.7 million views, said that he wanted his “daughter and her friends to be able to grow up feeling safe.”

He added: “For far too many women and girls, abuse and misogyny is a terrifying reality. My Labour government will be committed to changing that.”

That provoked a response from the Rotherham MP who challenged Sir Keir to expel a Labour Party member who had “"signed a harassment order for harassing my wife and two small girls. I raised it as a point of order in the Chamber and you STILL haven’t responded to me. Why are you condoning abuse against my family?”

Mr Stafford spoke to the Advertiser at length today about what his rival's alleged behaviour, which he says has brought distress to his wife Natalie.

The man’s name has not been disclosed.

“Last year a prominent Labour party member put up various 'attack ads' on line, basically saying I was a bad person and various other things.

“He decided to use not just images of me in my status as a politician - where I am open to criticism, true or not - but of all the pictures he could choose, he used pictures of my wife and my girls in those paid-for ads,” said the MP.

These images of his wife and their daughters Persephone, three, and Charlotte, two, went on Facebook and were not just targeted locally, but were there for all to see, he said.

Accompanying text was “really nasty stuff” and represented the “dark side of politics”, Mr Stafford said

“He did this to create an atmosphere of anger - why else would you promote it?

“I raised the issue in Parliament. It's in Hansard (official report of debates.)

“The very next day my office got a phone call from somebody shopping in Tesco who said: ‘There is this individual with a petition to get rid of the local MP.’.”

On the petitioner’s clipboard, was a picture of Mr Stafford and his family.

“Once again, you could use any pictures of me, there are millions of me online, why involve the wife and children?“Since then the police have got involved at various levels, the individual has been reported to the Labour party, there have been various other issues with that individual - bringing my wife into various attacks online and other things - which we have reported to the police.

“He is on their radar.”

The MP (36) said police had reassured him that they had spoken to the man, who had admitted his actions could be deemed to have harassed the family.

“He signed an order saying he would not come anywhere near my family.

“If there is any contact, we have to get in touch with the police.

"He is not to come anywhere near my family.”

Mr Stafford has also written to the Labour leader, but his calls to suspend him were not acted upon.

While there had been nothing physical in the alleged harassment, the man’s involvement had had a “huge effect” on his wife.

She was careful where she went shopping to avoid bumping into him, he said.

“Bear in mind my daughter was six months old at the time. It is one thing targeting me as a politician...”

Jayne Senior MBE, a whistleblower on the Rotherham child abuse scandal, was one of many who joined the X debate.

She posted: “Sadly Alexander, Keir Starmer has no interest in Rotherham, I wrote to him about my bullying and harassment from elected members with evidence, his reply was diabolical, I ended up having to get the NCA to safeguard myself and my family members.”

Other posters saw it in a different light.

One tweeted: “Isn’t that a matter for the police and the local council rather than Keir Starmer?”

Another told the Rother Valley man “Stop harassing Starmer!”

The Labour Party insists it “strives to provide a safe space for people to engage in campaigning and other political activity”.

The party has a “zero tolerance” to harassment in any forms.

Their Social Media Code emphasises the importance of “robust critical discussion of political views, in contrast to personal attacks, which are clearly not acceptable”.The official Westminster approach is that “political parties must work together” to tackle intimidation and abuse.