Reform UK candidate and former senior crown prosecutor Laila Cunningham has described a disturbing incident at her London home the night after Ann Widdecombe was discovered murdered in her own house. Appearing on Jeremy Kyle’s TalkTV show, Cunningham recounted how her car was vandalised and her front door was tagged, adding to a stream of online death threats she regularly receives.
Car Vandalised and Front Door Tagged
During the interview, Kyle asked Cunningham about her experiences in London: “What’s it like for you in London, have you been targeted? You’re a mother, you’re a wife, have you been targeted?” Cunningham replied: “I don’t know if it’s a target. So my car, the wing mirrors were ripped off. It was parked right in front of my house, and there were a few scratches. I don’t know if I should say this…”
Kyle reassured her, saying: “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” But Cunningham continued: “Yeah, someone did something to my front door overnight, after what happened to Ann Widdecombe. I don’t know, again, if that’s related, but they kind of tagged my front door.”
Online Abuse and Defiance
Cunningham also revealed the nature of the online abuse she faces: “Honestly, I get messages saying, ‘It’s about time you go kill yourself’, and ‘Now that Ann’s gone I guess you’re going to replace her’ kind of thing. But I don’t know if that’s normal, Jeremy.”
Kyle then asked: “So take the politics out of it – as a mum, as a woman, does that not make you go, ‘Sod this, I’m not doing this’?” But the London mayoral candidate responded defiantly: “No. It makes me like, ‘Do you know what? Eff you. I’m going to fight harder, you’re not going to scare me.’”
She added: “Because this is an attack on our country, it’s an attack on our democracy. And we cannot have people, even just normal people, scared to speak.”
Support Resources
If you have been affected by this story, you can contact the Samaritans, call 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit https://www.samaritans.org/
