THE leader of BCP Council has revealed she has faced death threats for her political work.

Responding to the content of an allegedly anti-Semitic article shared by a member of her coalition last week, Liberal Democrat councillor Vikki Slade hit out at the people who threaten politicians.

The parliamentary candidate for the Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency said there was an injunction in place against someone who made threats to her life.

Her comments followed the outrage which followed the decision of West Southbourne Labour councillor Lisa Lewis to retweet an article which said Countdown host Rachel Riley was “working for the Israeli state propaganda machine”.

“I saw what was in the article she retweeted and was disgusted by it,” Cllr Slade told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“I have lived through this and we have to make sure that people who seek to harm people in politics are dealt with.

“If you knowingly retweet material like this then you need to be prepared to face the consequences of that.

“I have spoken to Cllr Lewis and told her of my experiences and she was mortified.”

Cllr Lewis has not responded to requests to comment on her decision to share the article but has since been suspended by the Labour Party pending an investigation.

“Anyone who facilitates that sort of behaviour is treading a very dangerous line,” Cllr Slade added.

The revelation follows a BBC investigation which found more than half of MPs had who responded to it had been in contact with police about threats to them or their staff in the past 12 months.

Catherine Anderson, chief executive of The Jo Cox Foundation, set up in memory of the murdered MP said people needed to be able to disagree "politely".

“The scale of abuse and intimidation of people in public life is something we are extremely concerned about, and Vikki Slade’s experience clearly evidences the deeply serious nature of this worsening threat to democracy,” she said.

“Elected officials of all parties and at all levels of government need to be able to go about doing the hard work that they do in their communities without fear for their safety and that of those around them.

“We believe that behaviour change is needed at all levels of society - to wholly reject this horrifying abuse and intimidation, and to call out behaviour when we see it.

“We must as a country be able to disagree politely, to respect each other’s opinions, and to accept that while we may hold deeply opposite views, we can all still coexist peacefully and civilly.”