The abuse faced by Dominic Cummings is horrific – but he’s the man who helped to create this monster

Watching Dominic Cummings being heckled by his neighbours as he walked to his house left me feeling deeply uneasy. I was surprised at my feelings, given my own anger and outrage at his flagrant breach of the rules and his arrogant dismissal of accusations that he has done anything wrong. Yet there was something about him being taunted and abused in his own street and at his home – which should be anyone’s place of sanctuary – that made me feel uncomfortable.

I think it’s particularly because I know how he feels. Like many MPs, particularly women MPs, who tried to tell the truth about Brexit and who refused to sign up to the government’s path on it, I was on the receiving end of a large volume of abuse. And it wasn’t just anonymous social media trolls. Our homes and safety were threatened and activists were shouted at and abused on the doorstep. We lost a dear friend, assassinated during the referendum for her political values, and subsequently many of us had to reduce our accessibility to the public on police advice. After losing the election in December, trips to the local supermarket or pub resulted in mocking posts on social media, leaving me feeling that I didn’t want to step out my front door. It’s horrible.

So I felt for Dominic Cummings, but I also couldn’t help feeling that he was now a victim of the very aggression he has helped to whip up and certainly has used for his political advantage. The language in the referendum itself was divisive and inflammatory but after Boris Johnson became PM, this language was ramped up. To bully us into submission, the narrative became about “the people versus parliament” and we were “traitors” and “enemies of the people”. We were deliberately being pitched against our own constituents, in whose interests we were trying to work, and being presented as traitors to our country, when for most of us, the idea of public service to our country is what brought us into politics in the first place.

In one of the most shocking and shameful episodes I experienced in the chamber, the prime minister himself repeatedly used the words “surrender bill” to describe the attempts of parliamentarians to do what they believed was in the national interest. Despite repeated appeals for him to restrain his language, he smirked and repeated it several times. There is no doubt at all in my mind who was driving this dangerous narrative from within Number 10. Indeed when Cummings was asked last September about the abuse MPs were receiving, he replied that it was"‘not surprising". That same month, when confronted about the issue by MP Karl Turner, his response was, "Get Brexit done".

The anti-politics, anti-establishment mood was at fever pitch and they knew this stuff was polling well.

This style of aggressive and angry politics didn’t start with Cummings and it won’t end with him. The referendum in Scotland saw the early signs of this on these shores, and Trump’s “lock her up” campaign against Hillary Clinton shows we are not alone in seeing the rise of angry, hate-filled populism. But Cummings has fuelled it. Those who have swept into Downing Street on the back of this are now feeling the wrath of a monster they helped create.

It’s heartbreaking to see so much anger, intensified by the terrible grief and distress of missed funerals, loved ones taken before their time, and key workers risking their lives for others. And no one should be subjected to this kind of hounding at their home or in their street. I’m afraid Cummings ought to be the least surprised person to see it.

Anna Turley was the Labour MP for Redcar between 2015 and 2019

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