Kemi Badenoch has said there must be a "crackdown" on the growing safety risk faced by MPs, speaking publicly for the first time about death threats she received from a man claiming to be an ex-IRA member.
The Conservative Party leader told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: "A man, an ex-IRA member, has pled guilty to threatening to kill me and he was sending messages not just to me, but also to my family members.
"I just think that whether it's Nigel Farage or even Keir Starmer who had his home firebombed, that there is a threat to politicians that is increasing and we just need to crack down on this.
Prison spaces call
"Let's build the prison spaces so that we can put people who are making these threats and threatening politicians. But what I want the public to know is that my priority really is their safety."
She added: "MPs have often been threatened in this way, but we must not let that stop us from doing our jobs, and we are elected to make sure that we protect national security, to look after public security, and that is my priority."
Asked how she coped with threats to her safety, Mrs Badenoch replied: "It's really tough, but you just have to get on with it.
Court case details
"Every person who sends an abusive message, they think that they're just getting something off their chest. But the cumulative impact puts a lot of people off politics. But I'm not going to be put off."
Kieran Kyle, 43, pleaded guilty to two counts of sending communication of an indecent or offensive nature to Mrs Badenoch and her family when he appeared in court in September. He will be sentenced later this month.
In September, Westminster Magistrates Court heard that Kyle wrote to the Conservative Party leader's Parliament email address: "When I was in the IRA I would have shot you f****** dead." He also sent an email to Mrs Badenoch's husband Hamish which used racist references.
The messages were sent on the day Mrs Badenoch apologised for footage from Bloody Sunday being mistakenly used in a social media clip to criticise a Bill on legacy issues in Northern Ireland.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring told Kyle a custodial sentence "is a real option".
Nigel Farage and Sir Keir Starmer, as well as many MPs, have also faced high-profile threats to their safety. The man accused of murdering Ann Widdecombe has also been charged with preparing acts of terror including against Mr Farage, the Reform UK leader.
Counter terror police said Joshua Kerry, 28, was charged on Friday with one count of preparation of terrorist acts. Kerry was charged in July with the murder of 78-year-old Widdecombe, a former Conservative minister and Reform UK spokeswoman. Two men were jailed in June for conspiring to carry out arson attacks on Sir Keir's home last year.
