A FORMER MP has revealed that he stood down from parliament after receiving a death threat.

Ian Swales who served as the MP for Redcar between 2010 and 2015 revealed that a death threat was a major factor in standing down in 2015.

At the time he stated it was due to 'personal reasons'.

Mr Swales said: "I have decided to speak out after the death of Sir David Amess who I knew personally and liked very much. In 2014 two local men came to my Redcar office saying they wanted to kill me.

Read more: Conservative MP David Amess 'stabbed' several times in Leigh-on-Sea

"I was at Parliament in London at the time so my staff had to deal with these men one of whom had recently been released from prison. Chillingly they also said 'we know where he lives' so the police had to go and brief my wife who was alone in the house whenever I was away in London.

"After this incident I decided to stand down at the election in 2015. Whatever I may have signed up for I couldn’t have my staff and family living in fear.

"I said nothing publicly at the time as I didn’t want anyone to think you could get rid of your MP by threatening to kill them. However two MPs have been killed since then and I feel the public should know what happened to me."

This was the first incident of that nature that Mr Swales had experienced.

He said: "In politics you always get a fair amount of to and fro, but this was definitely the first of that type.

"The point was I didn't have to deal with it [because I was in London] my staff had to face it, they obviously explained that I wasn't there and then brilliantly managed to cope with it and get the police. But during the confrontation they said 'we know where he lives' my wife was on her own at home at the time.

"I was pretty shocked and very disturbed, when you enter politics you expect confrontation of ideas, but you don't expect to become physical and you certainly don't expect your staff and your family to get involved.

"The men were being fairly wild, I think it was to do with benefits, they weren't happy with the system, so they wanted to take it out on somebody."

Mr Swales spoke about Sir David Amess who was killed on Friday after being stabbed multiple times while holding a constituency surgery.

Mr Swales said: "He was one of the very best people you could meet in Parliament, he was a very very nice man."

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