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Zarah Sultana starts every event she attends the same way.

She has to log the date, location and time into a little mechanical device at each destination so security teams know where she is.

That way, if any danger were to occur, her colleagues and the parliamentary authorities can send support as quickly as possible.

She’s the Labour MP for Coventry South and the youngest Muslim MP ever elected in this country and believes this is partly the reason why this year – according to parliament’s own records – she’s the most at-risk MP online.

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Since the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israel, there has been a noticeable uptick in the hatred and abuse she receives online and she says, ever since she has started talking about Palestinian rights, the abuse has come thick and fast.

Often when talking about abuse, out of politeness, we risk sanitising the words that people direct towards her. So I cautiously ask her whether she would mind being open about what life is like for her on an average day.

She candidly whips out her phone and rattles off some of the types of abuse she has to deal with.

“‘You should be deported b***h,” the first one reads.

“Go home to Pakistan,” another abuser writes.

Ms Sultana speaks into a device to let security teams know where she is
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Ms Sultana speaks into a device to let security teams know where she is

The last one before I stop her is the most shocking – it simply says: “Send that b***h to Palestine they are low on targets.”

I ask her why then she’s on social media at all. She insists it’s a crucial part of the job and it’s the most effective way to communicate with constituents as a young MP.

I’m accompanying her over 24 hours to see how these threats have impacted her, but in the process I’m amazed at how many security decisions she’s constantly making. She avoids public transport when she can, she’s thinking of any exits of every building she walks into in case of threats, and she is never alone on visits.

Out door-knocking with her and her team I casually mention that this is perhaps the most exposing part of being an MP.

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The Labour MP has acknowledged there is a risk when it comes to door-knocking
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The Labour MP has acknowledged there is a risk when it comes to door-knocking

It involves knocking on strangers’ doors to ask for their vote. She accepts it’s part of the job but acknowledges the risks and says there have been times where she’s not been completely sure she was on solid ground in terms of her safety.

But she doesn’t want to let that get in the way of being an MP.

MP safety is a live issue and members’ duties have become more risky for members under threat.

Two MPs who were killed in their constituencies cast a long shadow.

Ms Sultana speaks at a refugee wellbeing centre in her constituency
Image:
Ms Sultana speaks at a refugee wellbeing centre in her constituency

Jo Cox was brutally murdered in 2016 and Sir David Amess was fatally stabbed five years later.

The risks are very real to sitting members of the House of Commons and for some MPs they see that risk as too high.

Mike Freer, a Conservative MP whose office was targeted in an arson attack on Christmas Eve last year, said he would be standing down at the next election, citing safety concerns as the reason.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak railed against “extremist forces trying to tear us apart” during a Downing Street address to the nation just over a week ago.

Parliamentary authorities say that safety is fundamental to democracy and offer a range of security measures for members.

More at risk MPs are entitled to more offerings and the security minister has said private cars have been given to some female MPs significantly at risk.

Ms Sultana is now upping her security – something needed even more as she starts campaigning to keep her seat in Coventry South.

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Bybit’s Notcoin listing debacle, China firm’s profits up 1100% after crypto buy: Asia Express

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Bybit’s Notcoin listing debacle, China firm’s profits up 1100% after crypto buy: Asia Express

Bybit to compensate users after Notcoin listing debacle, China gaming firm’s profits up 1100% after $200M crypto buy, and more: Asia Express.

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‘Crypto King’ Aiden Pleterski faces fraud, money laundering charges

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<div>'Crypto King' Aiden Pleterski faces fraud, money laundering charges</div>

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Jeremy Hunt to promise further tax cuts as pre-general election battle hots up

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Jeremy Hunt to promise further tax cuts as pre-general election battle hots up

Jeremy Hunt will promise further tax cuts if the Tories win the next general election and will accuse the Labour Party of not being honest about how it will fund its spending pledges.

The chancellor will give a speech in London on Friday in which he will accuse his shadow, Rachel Reeves, of resorting to “playground politics” with her criticism of the high levels of taxation on UK households.

Mr Hunt will also reiterate his ambition to eradicate the national insurance tax – which the Tories have already slashed twice in a bid to move the polls – where they currently lag 20 points behind Labour.

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Labour has attacked the policy as an unfunded £46bn pledge and likened it to the policies that saw Liz Truss resign from office after just 44 days as prime minister.

The chancellor was previously forced to make clear that his desire to abolish the “unfair” national insurance tax would not happen “any time soon”.

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The chancellor described national insurance as a “tax on work” and said he believed it was “unfair that we tax work twice” when other forms of income are only taxed once.

The overall tax burden is expected to increase over the next five years to around 37% of gross domestic product – close to a post-Second World War high – but Mr Hunt will argue the furlough scheme brought in during the pandemic and the help the government gave households for heating both needed to be paid for.

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“Labour like to criticise tax rises this parliament thinking people don’t know why they have gone up – the furlough scheme, the energy price guarantee and billions of pounds of cost-of-living support, policies Labour themselves supported,” he will say.

“Which is why it is playground politics to use those tax rises to distract debate from the biggest divide in British politics – which is what happens next.

“Conservatives recognise that whilst those tax rises may have been necessary, they should not be permanent. Labour do not.”

James Murray, Labour’s shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, said: “There is nothing Jeremy Hunt can say or do to hide that fact that working people are worse off after 14 years of economic failure under the Conservatives.”

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