KEMI Badenoch has revealed a man claiming to be a former IRA member threatened to kill her and even targeted members of her family.
The Tory leader said the man recently pleaded guilty after sending a string of menacing messages.
She told the BBC: “He was sending messages not just to me but also to my family members.
“And I just think that whether it’s or even Keir Starmer, who had his home firebombed, that there is a threat to politicians that is increasing, and we just need to crack down on this.”
Kieran Kyle admitted sending threatening emails to Mrs Badenoch after a row over a Tory social media video which mistakenly used footage of Bloody Sunday.
He claimed to be ex-IRA and warned she could be left “face down in a ditch with a bullet in her head”, while also sending racist messages to her husband Hamish.
Kyle pleaded guilty to two counts of sending indecent or offensive communications and was warned that jail was “a real option”.
He will be sentenced this month.
Mrs Badenoch said politicians could not allow threats and abuse to scare them out of public life.
She added: “Let’s build the spaces so that we can put people who are making these threats in and threatening politicians.
“But what I want the public to know is that my priority really is their safety.
“MPs have often been threatened in this way, but we must not let that stop us from doing our jobs.
“And we are elected to make sure that we protect national security, to look after public security, and that is my priority.”
Asked how she copes with that as a “mother” as well as a “leading politician”, she said: “It’s really tough… you just have to get on with it. You know, every person who sends an abusive message, you know, they think that they’re just getting something off their chest.
“But the cumulative impact puts a lot of people off politics. But I’m not going to be put off.”
Her warning comes just days after the man accused of murdering former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe was charged with preparing acts of , including against Reform leader Nigel Farage.
Joshua Kerry, 28, is accused of terror-related activity between May 2024 and July this year and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
He is also accused of murdering Ms Widdecombe, who died after being struck over the head with a hammer 21 times at her Devon home, a court has previously heard.
Reform deputy leader Richard Tice yesterday said Mr Farage had repeatedly raised fears about his security but had sometimes “not been believed” or listened to.
