Badenoch reveals ex-IRA death threat against her family and demands crackdown on MP abuse

Kemi Badenoch has revealed she and her family were targeted with death threats by a man claiming to be a former IRA member, speaking publicly about the ordeal for the first time on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Kieran Kyle, 43, from Gillingham in Kent, pleaded guilty on September 22 to two counts of sending indecent or offensive communications. He sent three emails to Badenoch’s parliamentary address on May 2, writing “when I was in the IRA I would have shot you f****** dead” and warning she could be left “face down in a ditch with a bullet in her head”. He also sent racist messages to her husband Hamish, telling him to “put a leash on her”.

The messages followed a Conservative social media video posted on April 28 that mistakenly used footage of Bloody Sunday in a clip attacking a government bill on Northern Ireland legacy issues. Badenoch apologised at the time, saying she had not signed off on the video.

Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring warned Kyle that a custodial sentence was “a real option”. He is due to be sentenced later this month.

Badenoch called for a crackdown on threats against politicians. “Whether it’s Nigel Farage or even Keir Starmer, who had his home firebombed, there is a threat to politicians that is increasing and we just need to crack down on this,” she said. “MPs have often been threatened in this way, but we must not let that stop us from doing our jobs.”

Sources: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/40575731/kemi-badenoch-death-threat-leader-mps-politicians/ | https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/badenoch-conservative-party-conference-latest-news-8psnzcbt7 | https://www.classicfm.com/radio/news/uk-world/kemi-badenoch-told-i-would-have-shot-you-dead/ | https://www.ibtimes.sg/kemi-badenoch-ira-what-we-know-about-reported-threat-94652