UK Edition
Jeremy Corbyn accused of fostering hate as Esther McVey faces renewed abuse
Jeremy Corbyn supporters have renewed a vicious hate campaign against new work and pensions secretary Esther McVey, posting death threats online.
The Tory MP, who replaced David Gauke as the new secretary of state earlier this week, was branded a "murderess", a "ruthless, dishonest coward" and an "odious, toxic liar".
A number of users also posted death threats on Twitter, including on Labour-supporting user who said: "The appointment of Esther McVey as DWP minister is a death sentence for thousands more disabled people. We'll do whatever it takes to put her out of her misery".
It follows John McDonnell's refusal to apologise for calling Ms McVey "a stain of inhumanity" in 2016, after he also repeated an activist's call for her to be "lynched".
Last night friends of Ms McVey said Mr Corbyn “tolerated and encouraged” such behaviour because he had not sacked his shadow chancellor for making the remarks.
One said: “This kind of personal abuse is not just tolerated by Jeremy Corbyn it is actively encouraged by him.
“He promoted to shadow Chancellor the man who said of Esther they should ‘lynch the b***h’.
“Given the outrage in recent days the Labour party has had about Toby Young, one would hope that these Labour MPs would show the same kind of outrage about John McDonnell and say that if Toby Young’s position was untenable then so was John McDonnell’s.
“Unless Corbyn sacks John MCDonnell I am afraid all he is doing is encouraging abuse and violence against a new female secretary of state.
“He should insist that John McDonnell apologises for that and if he won’t apologise for it he should sack him.
“Every Labour MP who has been supposedly outraged by Toby Young, I expect them all to join in and demand that too and if they don’t they are a bunch of hypocrites.”
Ms McVey lost her seat in the Commons in 2015 but regained it last year after the snap general election.
She was promoted to deputy chief whip and previously spend two years as a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions before being appointed secretary of state this week.
Asked about the abuse she has already received the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said: "The Prime Minister has been absolutely clear that nobody seeking to do their job should be
subject to harassment and abuse. That applies across public life."