Below is an article I’ve written for today’s Sunday Express. I’ve copied it in full. For legal reasons, I’m not allowing comments on this one.
A LONE “self-radicalised” Muslim scoured the voting records of four former Labour ministers as part of a plot to kill one of them, the Sunday Express has learned.
The Al Qaeda-inspired extremist examined the backgrounds of Stephen Timms, Jim Fitzpatrick, Margaret Hodge and Nick Raynsford before setting out on a planned attack.
A police examination of computer records showed the individual had also looked up the times when each MP, all of them based in east and south-east London, held their constituency surgeries.Computer records revealed that the individual used the website TheyWorkForYou.com to analyse how the MPs had voted on issues such as the Iraq war, the introduction of ID cards and anti-terror laws.
Police have offered all four MPs extra security as a result of the plot. The individual is in police custody.
The Sunday Express is unable to give more details for legal reasons.All four MPs represent constituencies with large Muslim populations and have close ties with the Islamic community. At least two of them, however, have been at the centre of controversies that have seen them targeted for verbal attacks.
Last year, Poplar MP Mr Fitzpatrick stormed out of a Muslim wedding because men and women had to sit separately. During the election campaign, his car was attacked.
In Barking, former culture minister Mrs Hodge was accused of inflaming racial tensions after she said mainstream parties were not “listening” to white working-class voters.
