Man sentenced for sending racist death threats to Rishi Sunak
A Merseyside man has been sentenced for sending racist death threats to the former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Liam Shaw, 21, of Birkenhead, sent two threatening and offensive emails to the public email address of Mr Sunak, who is MP for Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire, on the evening of 15 June 2024.
Mr Sunak was, at that point, Prime Minister. The emails were spotted by his personal assistant and reported to the police.
The language in the two emails was racist, offensive and suggested Mr Sunak should be killed by the public.
Police traced them to Liam Shaw’s email address and to a hostel where he was staying in Birkenhead. They had been sent via his mobile phone.
He was arrested by police on 3 September 2024. When the allegations were put to him, he said: “I don’t even remember sending an email. I was probably drunk.”
He was taken to a police station in Liverpool and interviewed but remained silent throughout.
He was charged with two counts of sending by a public communication network an offensive, indecent, obscene, or menacing message.
At Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on 10 July 2025, he pleaded guilty to both counts.
On 13 August 2025 at Liverpool Magistrates Court, he was sentenced to 14 weeks imprisonment for both counts, to run concurrently. The sentence was suspended for 12 months.
He must also complete 20 days of a rehabilitation activity and a six-month drug rehabilitation course. The Crown Prosecution Service also successfully applied for a restraining order which the court imposed for two years. It states that Liam Shaw must have no contact with Rishi Sunak or his constituency office in that time.
District Judge Timothy Boswell said at sentencing: “Direct access to your constituency MP is a cornerstone of democracy. Misusing that access is detrimental to the democratic process. Clearly it is a highly aggravating factor for the offence.”
Senior Crown Prosecutor Matthew Dixon of CPS Mersey Cheshire said: “Liam Shaw took to his phone that night to send racist and threatening messages to a person in an extremely important public office.
“The work of Members of Parliament is extremely important and the police and the Crown Prosecution Service play their part in keeping them safe and able to do their work without fear.
“The Crown Prosecution Service has always, and will continue to, safeguard a person’s right to freedom of expression.
"But this is clearly a case where the comments made were utterly beyond the boundary of what is tolerable in a fair, just and multi-racial society, and passed into the realm of criminality.
“Racist abuse has no place, anywhere, in this day and age."