Labour Parliamentary candidate joins the Liberal Democrats

Kate Godfrey, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate in Stafford at the 2015 general election, joined the Liberal Democrats earlier today:

As she expanded on in other tweets, her support for pro-European campaigning and to defend human rights in Syria were crucial to her decision:

She previously worked for the United Nations and was in the news last year for being on the receiving end of aggressive abuse online from Labour supporters:

A woman who stood to be a Labour MP at May’s general election has told of the harassment and stalking she suffered from a group of “hard left” members of the party.

Kate Godfrey said she became fearful she was afraid to walk to her car alone after receiving death threats and obscene phone calls and being followed to meetings.

She also received pornographic images with her face superimposed on them and people told her they were stocking “rat poison” for use on her…

“There was a strong vein of misogyny — the bullying quickly became sexualised. I’ve worked for the UN in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Pakistan as a single woman leading teams, I’m no softie but I got to the point where I felt really frightened.

“As the parliamentary candidate I couldn’t walk away from it, I couldn’t change my phone numbers, so I felt powerless.”

She claimed the harassment was done by members of the Labour Representation Committee, a left-wing pressure group within the Labour Party.

She claimed she complained to the chairman at the time, MP John McDonnell, who did not respond. [Huffington Post]