Tulip Siddiq MP

HAMPSTEAD and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq said she will not be put off doing her job after her car was vandalised in a targeted attack last week.

She returned home from Labour’s conference in Brighton on Thursday to find someone had smashed her car window and scrawled an offensive message on the roof, but nothing had been stolen.

Ms Siddiq said: “If the purpose of this attack was to intimidate me or stop me doing my job, it has failed. We will not be intimidated by the cowards who try to make us live in fear.”

She added: “Threatening women in public life has become all too common. I know from my own experience that what starts as abusive trolling on social media can soon escalate into threats of violence and vandalism.”

Over the past few years, female politicians have been subjected to rising levels of misogynistic abuse.

In April, a man was jailed for two years after sending hundreds of misogynistic threats to Labour MP Jess Phillips.

Two months later Oldham councillor Arooj Shah was targeted in a fire bomb attack.

Since then, numerous MPs – from all parties – have spoken out over the sexist and racist abuse they receive.

Ms Siddiq said: “It is appalling and puts talented girls and young women off standing for elected office or taking a stand on issues in public.”

She added: “The recent murders of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa and countless other women on our streets must be a wake-up call that we need culture change.

“It’s time to call time on the endemic misogyny and violence against women that blights our society.”

Last week, during a fringe meeting at her party’s conference she called for the big tech media companies to do more to stop hate messages appearing on social media.

‘I don’t feel I could challenge an officer’

TULIP Siddiq is among hundreds of women who have questioned police advice to challenge officers in the wake of the Sarah Everard murder – a Met response which has been seen as “victim-blaming”.

“I was born in London. I went to school and university in London. Both my children were born  in Camden,” she said.

“I am a British legislator. As a woman of colour, I would never ever feel able to challenge a police officer.”