By Charlotte Webster-
Diane Abbott’s allegation Lord Alan Sugar is harassing her online is to be examined, after she claimed that he has a history of abusive behaviour towards her.
In a statement on Twitter, the Hackney MP wrote: “this man repeatedly posts ‘disrespectful & offensive’ msgs & photos of me.”
“This is ‘targeted harassment’,” she added. “He has a history of ‘abusive’ tweets about me i.e. sexist poetry.”
Sugar has denied accusations of racism. “There is nothing racist in my criticism of Diane Abbot [sic],” he tweeted on Sunday. “I am entitled not to like her.”
The latest complaint arose after it emerged that Lord Sugar tweeted a poem in which he referred to the past sexual relationship she had with Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, before she joined parliament. A legal analyst working with The Eye Of Media.Com and assessing the complaint for journalistic purposes alone anonymously said:
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” Diane Abbott’s allegation is potentially serious. If she is being ridiculed online for something that occurred in her private life, it could amount to harassment if it has happened more than once.
The 1997 harassment Act only requires a course of conduct to cause ”alarm or distress” two or more times to potentially be an offence. The one proviso is that a reasonable person in the shoes of the complainant would consider it harassment. It becomes a value judgement, but one the average person can make. So the question becomes, if taken to court, would a jury consider it harassment”
TARGET
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Abbott’s complaint adds to several past complaints from the Labour MP that she has been the target of online racial harassment and abuse. The Labour Mp did not make any reference to racism in her recent complaint , neither did she state exactly what Lord Sugar said
Abbott’s criticism of Sugar sparked an outpouring of online support for her, culminating in the #IStandWithDiane hashtag trending on Twitter on Monday evening into Tuesday morning. Users expressed solidarity with Abbott and called on the social media platform to take action against Sugar.
Sugar has been a frequent critic of the party despite being its biggest donor in the 18 years he was a member. He has in the past tweeted demeaning comments about Jeremy Corbyn, making condescending references to Ms Abbott. A 2017 Amnesty International study found that Abbott – who is Britain’s first black, woman MP – received 45% of all abusive tweets sent to female MPs in the six weeks before election day that year, 10 times more abuse than any other woman MP.
In July, Abbott detailed the abuse and intimidation she had been subjected to, saying: “I’ve had death threats. I’ve had people tweeting that I should be hung – if, quote, ‘they can find a tree big enough to take the fat bitch’s weight’.”
She added: “I’ve had rape threats, described as a ‘pathetic, useless, fat, black, piece of sh*t’, ‘ugly fat black bitch’, and ‘n****r’. N****r over and over again.” She has repeatedly criticised twitter for not doing enough to tackle online abuse, saying that the social media giant platform has put racists into overdrive.
An investigation by The Eye Of Media.Com looking into whether Abbott had been the subject of racism during a BBC January episode of Question Time was suspended for internal reasons, but later resumed during a reschuffle. The quality and professionalism of Abbott’s team was also given to professional analysts to examine.
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