A TWEET which appeared to threaten the life of an SNP MP was not criminal, police have said.
Joanna Cherry reported a tweet in which a Twitter user – who appears to have since deleted their account – threatened: “I’d kill her with my bare hands if I saw her [in real life]”.
The Metropolitan Police have now said they reviewed the post and concluded it “did not meet the criminal threshold for an offence”.
A spokesperson for the London force said: “On Tuesday, June 13, the Met was made aware of a tweet received by a serving MP.
“The contents were assessed and it was deemed this did not meet the criminal threshold for an offence.
Vile responses from Joanna Cherry, Rosie Duffield and Neale Hanvey to Kirsty Blackman quoting a trans constituent. pic.twitter.com/wXKYqXqoPO
— Jordan (@JordanPfot) June 12, 2023
“The tweet has been logged for intelligence purposes and shared with security partners.”
Cherry found herself at the centre of controversy earlier this week when she appeared exasperated with an SNP colleague during a Commons debate on whether the Equality Act should clarify the meaning of “sex” to mean biological sex as opposed to a legal sex change obtained through a Gender Recognition Certificate.
She was filmed putting her head in her hands as SNP MP Kirsty Blackman quoted a trans constituent as saying they were considering suicide because of the culture war and what they said were attempts by gender-critical feminists to exclude trans people “from public life”.
At this point in the clip, Cherry could be heard saying: “What rubbish.”
She was criticised for her reaction on Twitter, with some accusing her of transphobia.
The Edinburgh South West MP has always strenuously denied she is transphobic and maintains changes in the law to make it easier for trans people to change their legal sex impinge on women’s rights because of the legally protected characteristic of sex.
Cherry said: "Further threats have been sent to the Met for analysis today.
"Sadly, all too often, politicians particularly women have to put up with direct threats on their life through social media and hateful emails.
"This is just one example of the repeated attempts to remove women like me who stand up for the rights of women and girls from public life.
"Next month I will be in court to give evidence against another man who threatened to kill me."
