Why does the BBC's political editor need a bodyguard at a Labour conference?

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg is being protected by security guards at the Labour party conference this week after months of hounding from online trolls.

The Sun on Sunday reports that Kuenssberg will be accompanied both inside and outside the conference venue, which is protected by a secure zone where delegates must have a pass to gain access.

A source told the paper: “We take the safety of our staff extremely seriously. Laura is a well-known public figure.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“She and her team will be covering events with big crowds where there can be hostility, so we want to ensure adequate precautions are taken.”

It’s not the first time Kuenssberg has been given a bodyguard after reports emerged claiming a similar precaution was taken during the general election, says The Daily Telegraph.

Kuenssberg “attracted ire” from some Labour supporters over her coverage of the 2016 local and leadership elections. The BBC found that one of her reports misrepresented Corbyn’s views on the policy of shoot-to-kill and broke the corporation’s rules on impartiality and accuracy. A petition for her to be sacked garnered 35,000 signatures before being taken down, The Independent says.

Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the abuse Kuennsberg faced was “unacceptable” and that abusive activists would be “disciplined”.

Describing it as a “a comment on the country we live in,” James Kirkup in The Spectator writes: “This is a story about people threatening to hurt a woman. Threatening to hurt her for saying things they disagree with, things they do not want her to say.”

“Think about what that says about Britain, a country that prides itself on its values of tolerance and equality.”

The four-day Labour party conference started Sunday.