Arrest made after Welsh MP receives death threats in wake of Sir David Amess killing

A 76-year-old has been arrested after a Welsh politician received death threats after calling for kindness following the killing of fellow colleague MP Sir David Amess.

Rhondda MP Chris Bryant took to Twitter to ask for kindness and respect for each other despite differing political views.

South Wales Police was called at around 4.30pm on Saturday 16 October following reports of malicious communications.

A 76-year-old man from Pontycmer, Bridgend has since been arrested on suspicion of malicious communications.

It comes after Conservative MP Sir David Amess was killed at his surgery in Essex on Friday 15 October.

The first of Mr Bryant's tweets on Saturday read, "Let’s all send a kind message on Twitter today to a politician we disagree with. Let’s eliminate the negative".

After receiving almost 1,000 replies, on the following day he posted, "You only have to look through some of the responses to this tweet to see the poison that is infecting British politics. And now I’ve had yet again another death threat."

In an interview with WalesOnlines, Mr Bryant said he'd received "a lot of death threats" over the years.

"They happen about four to five times a year. People have been arrested, cautioned by the police and one has gone to jail for it."

"There are many people putting themselves in harm's way on behalf of the public every day but there can't be many workplaces that have suffered two murders in five years."

He acknowledged that whilst it is a positive that MPs do ordinary things like visit the supermarket and catch a train, there is a "danger" when it comes to "individuals harbouring a lot of anger".

"Sometimes we become a target."