Man due in court in Lancashire charged with online threats to Commons Speaker

Lancashire Police have charged a man with making online threats to the Chorley Labour MP and Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

A spokesperson for the Force said, "A man was arrested following a report of an offensive and threatening message sent via social media.

"Following enquiries a man in his fifties from Chorley has been charged with two counts of malicious communications and has been bailed to appear at Preston Magistrates Court on May 23."

Sir Lindsay himself revealed he had received online abuse in an interview following the announcement that the Conservative Justice Minister Mike Freer is standing down at the next election. The London MP said repeated threats and an arson attack on his constituency office had left him too fearful to carry on his work.

Mr Freer and his staff had been informed that Ali Harbi Ali had watched their Finchley office before going on to murder fellow Conservative MP Sir David Ames at his office in Southend in 2021.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle said: "Of course Mike has been through a lot. I understand him saying 'Enough is enough', and I respect that"

He said he had been threatened in posts online on Friday 26 January: "I faced threats as well and the police had to make an arrest on the basis of threats that are coming in all the time.

"I got lots of that and it shouldn't go with the job but unfortunately it does come with the job."

He said the abuse related to his work as the Chorley MP, but didn't go further as to their nature.

The Commons Speaker said he was involved in tightening security measures for MPs.