Mike Freer will stand down as MP for Finchley and Golders Green at the next election. He says the strain on his husband and wider family is too great. For years, he has had social-media abuse, death threats, hostile graffiti, mock-Molotov cocktails left as his door, an attempt to prise open the windows of his constituency office and a rude note stuck to the windscreen of his car – some of which proved that hostile people knew his whereabouts.
A Labour councillor has been forced to apologise after appearing to celebrate a Tory MP’s announcement that he was stepping down at the next election because of threats to his safety.