In a wide-ranging interview, she said she was subject to ‘harassment, intimidation and bullying’ and said things got so ‘scary’ that she stopped inviting her grandchildren to her home on weekends.
She said she also felt ‘disappointed’ at seeing people she had considered ‘friends’ turning against her.
Former council leader Ms Hollern, 70, won three straight general elections as a Labour candidate before losing by just 132 votes to Independent candidate Adnan Hussain in 2024.
It was the first time a non-Labour candidate had been elected to be the town’s MP for nearly 70 years.
The election campaign, particularly in Blackburn, was heavily influenced by the war between Israel and Hamas and ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine, with Mr Hussain running largely on a pro-Palestine ticket.
Despite losing Blackburn, Labour won the election with a huge majority.
It also followed local elections where the newly-formed 4BwD group of councillors who quit Labour over its perceived stance on the conflict won enough seats to become Blackburn with Darwen Council’s official opposition.
Speaking to One Voice as part of the Aleeza Isa Interviews segment and interviewed by Zaffer Khan, she spoke candidly about the events of the 2024 General Election and her life after parliament.
She was asked if she ever felt the election ‘would not go her way’.
Ms Hollern said: “I always felt that. Even with huge majorities.
“On that particular day, I knew it was too close to call. We knew it was going to be a long count. We knew it was going to be a difficult count.”
She said: “It was a toxic campaign under very difficult circumstances.
“In 30 years of fighting elections, I have never experienced harassment, intimidation and bullying as I did at that election.
“The weeks running up to it were very distressing. At one point, I was told I was going to be beheaded.
“At another point, I was told I worshipped a false god.
“When someone tells you, ‘You are going to be beheaded’, and you see a picture of yourself on social media covered in blood, of course it worries you.
“When people are screaming at you that you have ‘blood on your hands’ – it is quite intimidating.”
On election day, she said she was ‘fearful and scared’ to go to some places in the constituency she had represented for nine years.
She said: “It takes a lot to frighten me.
“I just think what will be will be, but it took me a number of months to get over it.
“I had taxis sitting outside my house in the middle of the night, flashing lights. It was absolutely awful.
“It is very difficult when you live on your own. So it was scary.
“I stopped letting my grandchildren come to my house on weekends because I was nervous and I was worried.
“That should not be allowed to happen.”
Talking of election night itself, she said: “I did not care how it went for a couple of hours.
“I wanted it over.”
She said ahead of polling day, she had been disappointed that some people she had helped over many years, and considered to be friends, were saying ‘horrible and untrue’ things.
She said she had also received messages of support since the election, and also accepted that you have to move on following any election.
She refuted accusations that she had ‘concentrated on one community’, and said: “I have seen that on social media and I don’t believe I did.
“My surgeries were in every part of the town. I engaged with every part of the community.”
On life after the election, she said: “For someone who has worked all their lives, when you stop work, it is quite difficult.
“I think, what am I going to do with myself. That probably lasted two weeks!
“Then the phone started. I still get lots of people contacting me for help with benefits, housing and police. It has kept me interested.”
You can view the full interview on the One Voice Blackburn YouTube Channel.
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