‘People wanted to poison me with ricin’ – North Wales MP reveals reasons for wearing stab-proof vest to constituency meetings

A North Wales MP has revealed her reasons for wearing a stab-proof vest to constituency meetings.

Earlier today, Conservative MP Virginia Crosbie told GB News she had taken to protecting herself following a rise in threats towards politicians and the murders of Sir David Amess and Jo Cox.

The Ynys Môn representative has now given a further interview to Times Radio outlining the nature of the death threats she has personally received, including bomb and poison threats.

In December 2021, police launched an investigation after a death threat with the message “traitors hang” was sent to Ms Crosbie’s constituency office in the run up to Christmas.

When asked why she had take to wearing the protective vest, she said: “The reality is that MPs do not feel safe and it was concerns for my safety.

“They are not going to stop me from actually holding surgeries and doing what I see is a is a vital part of my job, which is being out in the community meeting people and being approachable.

“If I stopped doing surgeries then then these these people that are threatening us have won. Unfortunately, to do my job, I had to take precautions and that means wearing a stab vest. I didn’t want to do that – I simply had to take these these measures.

“I inform the police when I do a surgery and they’ve been very supportive and I also have a private security attending but I won’t be stopped from being the approachable MP that I want to be.”

Discussing the nature of the threats, Ms Crosbie said: “I do receive a significant amount of threats and abuse, particularly on social media.

“I represent this sort of unholy trinity of being a Conservative, being a woman and also, although I’m Welsh from my father’s side, I actually  do sound English.

“I think part of this relates to the fact that it seems much more acceptable to abuse people on social media, not only MPs but also sportspeople, schoolteachers and governors etc.

“On social media, I’ve had people who have wanted to poison me with ricin, someone sent me a letter saying you wanted to hang me and people wanted to bomb me as well but I will not be intimidated.”

Ms Crosbie said she hadn’t considered cancelling her constituency surgeries outright as she believed they were an important part of her role.

She described the murder of fellow Conservative MP Sir David Amess as “a real shock and a real wake up call” and called for more to be done to protect MPs.