Callum Jones
Police are hunting for a woman who left a takeaway box filled with poo at the office of a Conservative MP.
To help with their search, police have released CCTV footage of the woman who left the unpleasant box for Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie, who made history in 2019 by becoming the first woman to represent the constituency.
The white takeaway box was reported to have been left outside the office of the MP on 2 November shortly after 1:30pm.
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The MP's name was written on top of the box and is reported to have included a message inside reading 'If you won’t clean your own s***, why should I?'.
Police say they have now identified the woman on the CCTV footage and would like to speak to her.
Gloucestershire Constabulary said: "Police have released CCTV footage of a woman they would like to speak to in connection with the harassment of an MP.
"Investigating officers have now identified a woman on CCTV who they would like to talk to further in relation to the incident.
"In the footage, the woman is seen wearing pink trousers and walking towards the MP's office.
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"Anyone who can identify the woman or who has information which could help the investigation is asked to contact Gloucestershire Constabulary through the website, quoting incident 212 of 2 November."
Ms Baillie has been speaking since the discovery of the poo was found outside her office last week.
She said: "We are also in the middle of town – what would have happened if a child had picked it up instead?
"I have no idea what they hope to achieve other than to try and intimidate myself and my staff.
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"Nobody deserves having to find this stuff outside their workplace and MPs have been murdered in recent years so we cannot ignore strange or nasty behaviour."
The MP adds this type of behaviour 'will harm democracy' and could potentially put people off public office roles in the future.
She continued: "This type of activity is self-defeating and will harm democracy.
"Decent people are already thinking twice about standing for public office or working in public facing roles because of the nastiness, hate and abuse that MPs and others receive.
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"If we continue down this road, with people resorting to such juvenile and unpleasant tactics, then we may end up with elected officials who refuse to engage with the public or believe it is acceptable political discourse to leave excrement on doorsteps of those they do not agree with.
"I have a zero tolerance to this sort of behaviour. I know the vast majority of local people will be equally disgusted too."
Gloucestershire Constabulary are urging anyone who can identity the woman to get in touch.