Grisly image puts MP in firing line

The website image of George Osborne

Oldham MP Michael Meacher is under fire for having an image of Chancellor George Osborne with his throat slit on his left-wing blog.

The veteran Oldham West and Royton MP called for Labour supporters to “go for the jugular” on the Left Futures blog, criticising the Chancellor’s cuts to public spending.

But the blog, which is edited by Mr Meacher’s researcher Jon Lansman, also included an image of George Osborne’s head superimposed on the neck of a man with a deep slash across the throat.

The same words about Mr Osborne’s policies are included on Mr Meacher’s personal blog, without the illustration.

Tory MP Harriett Baldwin described the image as “vile” and added: “This must be withdrawn and Ed Miliband (the Labour leader) must denounce it in the strongest possible terms.”

The article remained on the blog with the picture yesterday but Mr Meacher declined to comment when contacted by the Chronicle saying only: “It is silly.”

In the blog, Mr Meacher says that George Osborne’s policies will cause the economy to collapse, and his story is headlined: “Labour should go for Osborne’s jugular.”

Some Labour commentators to the blog are also appalled by the image. One, John Jepp, says: “Much as I hate Osborne’s policies and have a personal dislike for the man, showing pictures of him murdered are not just in bad taste, they can feed the kind of political conversation that if we were on the end of it, we’d find fairly unacceptable.

“If a Tory blog had a picture of Ed Balls or Caroline Lucas hanging from a lamppost we’d be appalled — and I think it’s up to us on the left to lead by example.”

Another says: “Illustration in bad taste.”

John Lansman added his own comment: “Going for the jugular is universally understood as idiomatic usage and the picture referenced that in a jocular fashion that was clearly intended as Rocky Horror Show rather than al-Quaeda.”