Death threats including photo of decapitated body sent to 'more than 25 MPs'

'This is a regular part of what we're dealing with', says Labour MP Chris Bryant

Labour MP Chris Bryant said he has 'never known the Labour party be in such an unpleasant state' (PA )

A police investigation has been launched after identical death threats were sent to at least 25 MPs via email.

Labour MP Chris Bryant told LBC radio that he and at least 24 other MPs had received the message which read: "Warning, I am going to kill you and kill all of your family."

He claimed the email also included a photograph of a decapitated body attached.

He said: "Part of you hopes that's just somebody being stupid, but it may be someone being more than stupid.

"It is difficult to know how seriously to take them, but when they mention your family, you have to take them seriously."

Mr Bryant said MPs from different parties had received the same threat.

"The truth is that this is a regular part of what we're dealing with at the moment," he said.

The police said all the recipients of the email have names beginning with A, B or C, indicating the sender was not targeting particular individuals but was sending them to MPs "generically", MailOnline reports.

Police Scotland Chief Superintendent Craig Naylor said: "I can confirm that a number of threats were sent to several politicians on Friday evening, and which have been reported by them or their staff.

"Police are following a positive line of inquiry. Appropriate advice has been given concerning personal safety and security for the politician, their families, staff and premises."

Mr Bryant blamed the internet for the rise in anger directed towards MPs.

He said on LBC: "I don’t want police to waste time and I don’t want politicians to be treated differently, but the truth of the matter is that we are in the public eye, and somehow or another, this world of the internet has fostered an anger and a bitterness and a lot of us are still bearing the emotional scars of losing one of our colleagues [Jo Cox] earlier on this year."

He added: "What is particularly disturbing is that a lot of these threats are to women. I think women MPs, gay MPs, ethnic minority MPs get the brunt of it."

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "All of these emails have been received via MPs’ parliamentary email accounts. No arrests have been made and inquiries are ongoing. This is not being treated as a terrorist incident."

Mr Bryant criticised Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to tackling reports of harassment within the party.

He said: "I've never known the Labour party be in such an unpleasant state as it is at the moment, with members of the Labour party attacking members online day in day out. And sometimes with the level of nastiness and the level of vituperativeness, and demonstrations outside peoples’ offices, and that sort of stuff, I think Jeremy has been very very slow to act on that.

He added: “A lot of this is happening on Jeremy’s watch. You need a stronger leader if you’re really going to be able to tackle that.”

The killing of Jo Cox, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, a week before the referendum prompted a security review which gives MPs extra security measures and is thought to include greater funding for alarms, locks, and CCTV in constituency surgeries and in their homes.

Earlier in August, Labour MP for Yardley in Birmingham, Jess Phillips, said she was installing a "panic room" in her constituency office after receiving a number of threats to her personal safety.