Plymouth’s out gay MP’s office has been targeted by homophobic hate graffiti for the second time in three weeks after Luke Pollard MP announcing his bid for re-election.
Luke Pollard is the Labour MP for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport. He is campaigning for Labour and one of the people standing against him is notorious homophobic Ex-Tory MP now standing for the Brexit Party Ann Widdecombe.
Widdecombe used her time in Parliament to actively block equality legislation and voted against LGBT+ rights and she is on record as saying eh “believes homosexuality can be cured”
This morning Pollard found his offices in Plymouth city centre office had been attacked and spray-painted with the word ‘pedo’ and other offensive terms. This is the third time that his office has been vandalised.
Vandals have previously sprayed ‘die Blair’ and other anti-gay slurs on Mr Pollard’s office. The shadow minister said he scrubbed off today’s graffiti with the help of Plymouth City Council and a passing Deliveroo cyclist.
In a message to those targeting him he said: ‘I’m not going to be made a victim of by people who have hate in their hearts, nor am I going to let my staff who work so hard from this office… helping people with homelessness, with Universal Credit problems, with housing issues be threatened and feel unsafe going into work.’
Mr Pollard is one of many MPs who have been warned their safety is at risk in the run up to the General Election. A parliamentary report published last month found the volume of violent threats to MPs has ‘dramatically increased’ since the Brexit referendum, with warnings of rape and murder becoming ‘commonplace’.
Mr Pollard continued “What has given me confidence is that the vast majority of Plymouth, regardless of how they vote, don’t want this type of behaviour in their city. And these attacks have actually encouraged more people to call this out, to say we don’t want this in our city. This isn’t the society we want to be.”
However, he noted that hate crimes in Devon and Cornwall are on the rise, with the trans community at particular risk. He urged all politicians, regardless of their party, to take a stand against this hate – and that includes Ann Widdecombe.
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