Chatham's Cllr Vince Maple receives post-General Election abusive message
10:52, 29 December 2019
updated: 20:07, 30 December 2019
A Labour politician has spoken out after he received abuse in the post.
Cllr Vince Maple, leader of the Labour Party at Medway Council, got the message on a campaign leaflet.
It read: "**** off you terrorist supporting ****"
Whilst the ward councillor for Chatham Central was bemused he had to pay £2 to collect the message from the Post Office, he said he hadn't taken it personally.
He said: "I had it posted to me a couple of weeks ago but it didn't have postage on it. I had to pay £2 to be abused."
Reflecting on the campaign trail for the General Election last month, Mr Maple, who was contesting the Chatham and Aylesford seat, described it "aggressive".
He said: "There was quite a lot of anger about politics generally and I think that's manifested itself in this message.
"In Chatham and Aylesford we campaign respectfully.
"It's a tiny minority; there's about 70,000 voters in Chatham and Aylesford and one person has decided to do that, so that's a minority of one and that's fine."
Mr Maple said this was not the first time he had received online abuse, having previously spoken out about the migrant crisis.
During the campaign, of of the party's banners the Princes Park area of Chatham was daubed with graffiti.
The abusive message was shared on Mr Maple's Twitter.
Labour MP Jess Phillips commented on the tweet, saying "Tough gig".
The MP for Birmingham Yardley had police come to her house three times in September after she spoke in a debate in the Commons in which she was scathing of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's use of parliamentary language.
Mr Maple added: "Female activists and politicians receive a disproportionate amount of terrible, misogynistic abuse.
"It's the anonymous nature of online abuse; people have got no filter.
"It's totally unacceptable regardless of what political party they are in.
"You can disagree and have a robust discussion, but it's totally unacceptable."
KMTV talk to Vince about the threats
