Labour MP sent death threat calling her ‘Putin’s whore’

Email was ‘filled with racist abuse’, says Zarah Sultana

Zarah Sultana MP with Jeremy Corbyn at the 2021 Labour party conference. Both politicians were signatories to a controversial Stop the War statement on Ukraine

(Getty Images)

A Labour MP has revealed that she received a death threat calling her “Putin’s whore” amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South, said she has “no doubt” that the personal attack was the result of “misleading reports and press comments”.

She said she had reported the death threat, which was “in an email filled with racist abuse”, to the police.

In a statement, which Ms Sultana posted on Twitter, she said: “I am horrified at the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I stand with the people of Ukraine and have unequivocally condemned Putin’s actions.”

Ms Sultana was one of 11 Labour backbenchers who were ordered by party leadership to remove their names from a statement about the situation in Ukraine by the Stop the War coalition.

The Stop the War statement, published last week, accused the UK government of “sabre-rattling” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It said: “We refute the idea that Nato is a defensive alliance, and believe its record in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia and Libya over the last generation, not to mention the US-British attack on Iraq, clearly proves otherwise”.

Ms Sultana said that in the past week her views have been incorrectly reported in the media. She criticised a briefing from an “anonymous Labour source” to the media, which suggested “that Labour MPs were a “mouthpiece for the Kremlin”.

“I must make clear at this stage that these accusations have crossed the line from false to dangerous,” Zarah Sultana added.

Ms Sultana said that she had contacted the Labour party chair, Anneliese Dodds, to emphasise the seriousness of “party sources” disseminating dangerous and irresponsible messages”.

Following the publication of the Stop the War statement, a Labour spokesperson said: “The small number of Labour MPs that signed the Stop the War statement have now all withdrawn their names.

“This shows Labour is under new managements. With Keir Starmer’s leadership there will never by any confusion about whose side Labour is on - Britain, Nato, freedom and democracy - and every Labour MP now understands that.”