Got this today for speaking out for Remain….. This has to stop. pic.twitter.com/HPV8asrZ3w
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) June 21, 2016
The former cabinet minister assured followers on social media that police are now investigating the threats, but it has further fueled fears that the EU referendum debate has enflamed the British far-right, opening the door to potentially more violence in future.
@MegansDaddie @Lintellan The threatening tweet to Yvette is disgusting and indefensible.
— Fan of David Paisley (@KarenKts11) June 21, 2016
This incident comes less than a week after Jo Cox MP was shot and stabbed by Britain First activist Thomas Mair, who when asked his name in court, said "my name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain." Wednesday would have been Cox's 42 birthday.
Thomas Mair had a subscription to the neo-nazi National Alliance manual which included works on gun and bomb making. pic.twitter.com/KF15WygQ5J
— Liam O'Hare (@Liam_O_Hare) June 16, 2016
Director of the pro-Scottish independence think tank Common Weal, Robin McAlpine, told Sputnik that fears of potential violence were overstated, and missing the point:
"Despite isolated acts, I have a fairly skeptical view about whether the vast majority of anger ever converts itself into action. Britain is a country which has an amazing track record of turning fury into apathy.
"What happens if generation after generation of an entire social class just feels 'nothing ever works for me, what difference does it make?' What happens if people get rightly angry — because there's a lot of good reasons to be angry — and nobody, literally nobody, offers them a way out, apart from that right wing version of 'little England' and then it gets beaten," McAlpine told Sputnik.
As the UK approaches its biggest vote in a generation, the polls remain too close to call. Brits will vote Thursday (23 June) on whether or not to remain in the European Union, or go it alone.
