{"id":288481,"date":"2025-11-28T20:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T20:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/288481\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T20:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T20:19:09","slug":"woman-jailed-for-harassing-rachel-reeves-sister-ellie-reeves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/288481\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman jailed for harassing Rachel Reeves\u2019 sister | Ellie Reeves"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman who tried to summon her MP, the solicitor general Ellie Reeves<\/a>, to court has been jailed for harassment in London.<\/p>\n

Tracey Smith sent Reeves 22 emails and 10 voicemails calling her \u201ctransphobic\u201d and accusing her older sister \u2013 the chancellor, Rachel Reeves<\/a> \u2013 of physically assaulting her at a buffet bar.<\/p>\n

Smith, who is a trans woman, used phrases including \u201ca person is dangerous when they have nothing to lose\u201d and \u201cbullets will be flying around\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 58-year-old was sentenced to 26 weeks\u2019 imprisonment and ordered to pay costs of \u00a3650 at Westminster magistrates court on Friday.<\/p>\n

District Judge Michael Snow also ordered a restraining order without time limit to be imposed.<\/p>\n

Smith had persuaded a county court to issue a witness summons to Reeves, which the MP was able to avoid only with the help of lawyers for the speaker of the House of Commons.<\/p>\n

She also made accusations about the local council, doctors and the police, and demanded that Reeves contact her personally to get the full story.<\/p>\n

Ellie Reeves in her south London constituency. Photograph: Antonio Olmos\/The Observer<\/p>\n

Smith claimed she was trying to ask the Lewisham West and East Dulwich MP for help, but a judge found her guilty of harassment after a one-day trial last month.<\/p>\n

District Judge Snow said Smith\u2019s offending was intended to cause Reeves \u201cmaximum fear and distress\u201d and was \u201ca direct attack upon democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

He told Smith she had used language which was \u201cinflammatory, which was threatening and which continued even after you were told in no uncertain terms to desist\u201d.<\/p>\n

Snow added: \u201cIt was deliberate, planned, and had a very significant effect on Ms Reeves \u2013 causing her significant anxiety which prevented her from fully engaging with her family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sentencing Smith, he told her: \u201cYou did cause Ms Reeves to adopt considerable changes to her lifestyle and this directly impacted upon her democratic duties.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou caused her to engage a special protection officer to accompany her, caused her to change the ways in which she behaves within her constituency in that she no longer travels by foot or public transport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between July and October 2024, Smith sent emails and left voicemails accusing Reeves of \u201clegalising sexual abuse\u201d, \u201cabusing the law\u201d and being a \u201cfascist\u201d, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Reeves told the trial that Smith left her a \u201cslightly menacing\u201d voicemail telling her \u201ctime is running out\u201d for her to respond.<\/p>\n

In one of her emails, Smith said the MP\u2019s sister and chancellor \u201clooked like the woman who attacked me at a buffet bar\u201d, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Reeves also told the trial that Smith\u2019s communications \u201cwas upsetting me, it was upsetting my staff. It just felt like it wasn\u2019t going to stop\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who tried to summon her MP, the solicitor general Ellie Reeves, to court has been jailed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-288481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}