MPs are wearing stab vests to constituency surgeries and considering hiring private security as they fear another politician will be killed before their safety is taken seriously.
Sir David Amess, Conservative MP for Southend West, was murdered at a constituency surgery in October 2021, prompting the promise of stronger security for MPs. Jo Cox, Labour MP for Batley & Spen, was murdered in 2016.
However, more than a year after the death of Amess politicians feel as vulnerable as ever and believe that there will be another murder before change comes.
“I was the last MP to see David Amess,” James Sunderland, Tory MP for Bracknell and a former army officer, said. “But they [Amess and Cox] won’t be the last. Heaven forbid it happens again, but it’s a question of when, not if, and what we have to do is do everything in our power to prepare us for those situations.”
Virginia Crosbie, Conservative MP for Anglesey, has worn a stab vest to surgeries since Amess’s death. “The decision to buy a stab vest was a serious one because I always want to be able to engage face to face with my constituents without obvious barriers,” she said. “But not to engage or to feel unsafe were not options either.
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“Our democracy relies on MPs being able to meet those they represent. That was my overriding reason to wear the vest. I want to be the best MP I can. It is very sad I must, but the present climate makes it a necessity. I always inform the police I am having a surgery and a close protection officer is with me.”
Ali Harbi Ali, Amess’s killer, was also convicted of preparing an attack on Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, and Mike Freer, MP for Finchley & Golders Green. Freer has said that as a result he and his staff have started wearing stab vests and carrying panic alarms.
Sunderland said the system needed an overhaul, and a parliamentary security committee should be set up to hold the agencies to account. “Politicians shouldn’t be doing security,” he said. “We need to govern it properly: once you govern it properly, everything else will follow.”
After the murder of Amess (obituary, October 15, 2021), Priti Patel, then home secretary, began a review of MPs’ security, and in September parliament put out to tender a £5 million contract to bring in close protection officers and door supervisors to boost safety.
Parliament can throw a “ring of steel” around MPs only while they are in Westminster, however. A new security company was brought in last year to secure MPs’ homes. Chubb, hired after Cox’s murder to install additional measures, was replaced by ADT after complaints of slow service and bad advice. MPs now say they make Chubb “look like a dream”.
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One MP said he had looked into getting stab vests for his constituency work, but if he did so it would come under expenses and be published by the authorities.
Every politician is given a security assessment and gets a standard package, such as alarm systems, shutters, CCTV and personal alarms for staff.
The MP said: “After David Amess [was killed], for about a month, maybe six weeks, every time the police were involved the response was very quick or we’d have our surgeries and we’d have security guards. All that’s disappeared now. I’m sure if you requested it, you could get all that stuff, but before they were very proactive, but now I don’t feel supported.”
He said that in his area, a “white supremacist” had been released, and one of the charges against him was that he had plotted to kill an MP. The police had not let the MP know. “Security of MPs is more than just having an alarm fitted to your house,” he said.
He suggested educating MPs in areas such as countersurveillance. “This is about being aware of what’s around you, who’s around you, it’s spotting things that are out of place,” he said.
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A parliamentary spokesman said: “We work closely with the Met’s parliamentary liaison and investigations team, and through them, local police forces, who are responsible for the security of MPs and their staff away from the parliamentary estate, to ensure MPs are kept as safe as possible and are able to perform their duties.” The spokesman added that MPs’ security arrangements were kept under continuous review.
ADT said that it took security “very seriously”. A spokesman said they could not comment on the security arrangements of MPs.
