MPs from across the political spectrum have told how they face death threats, intimidation and abuse in an attempt to “pervert our democracy”.
They spoke out after concerns were raised about the reaction to votes on a ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday.
With tensions already running high on the emotive issue, acrimony broke out when Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the Commons, decided to break with parliamentary precedent to give Labour MPs an extra vote on their Gaza stance. This was against the advice of officials, but he said he was only trying to protect them from a possibly violent public backlash.
Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, accused Hoyle instead of having “raised temperatures”.
As the dust settled on the previous night’s mayhem, MPs gathered on Thursday to share stories about the intimidation and abuse they and their families had received in recent months.
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“In order to be here at this time, I have delayed giving a personal statement to the police on the latest individual who thinks that members of this House are fair game to be harassed, stalked and threatened,” said Vicky Ford, a Conservative MP and former minister.
She voiced concern that “our votes are often wilfully misinterpreted and used to drum up hatred against parliamentarians, and that perverts our democracy”.
Such subjects are normally taboo in Westminster. MPs are afraid of speaking openly about the threats they face — to avoid making themselves a bigger target or giving perpetrators the satisfaction of knowing how deeply it impacts them.
One Tory MP privately said requests he made three years ago for security improvements in his office and another attempt to create a safe room in his home had come to nothing.
A minister also admitted they had decided not to stand at the next general election, not because they could not handle the threats but because it had become too much for their husband.
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Lucy Powell, the shadow leader of the Commons, said many MPs did not want to be accused of complaining, but some felt they could stay silent no longer. “During recess we saw another line being crossed, with the intimidation of a member [of parliament] and their family at their family home,” she said.
Powell was referring to up to 80 pro-Palestinian protesters holding a demonstration outside the home of Tory MP Tobias Ellwood last week.
“Reports that other organisations will be targeting the homes of MPs ahead of and during the election have caused huge anxiety,” Powell said, in a reference to protest plans by Just Stop Oil. “It is a totally unacceptable development.”
Paul Bristow lost his job as a parliamentary private secretary back in November when he became one of the few Tory MPs to back a ceasefire. “Someone suggested on social media that they would show my wife a real man. Someone else suggested that they would attack me and my family,” he told the Commons this week.
Barry Shearman, a Labour MP for 45 years, also revealed he had received a death threat. “A gentleman was arrested and went into a mental institution,” he said. “When he was released, the House authorities and the Met police met me and said, ‘This gentleman is now out and he knows where you live’ … but that was the last I heard.
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“I am a person who watches where he walks and does not stand by the side of the platform on the Tube. I alter my way of coming into the House. It is very stressful.”
Barry Gardiner, another Labour backbencher, complained recently that the security offered to MPs is “lamentably poor”. In a victim impact statement read out in court at the trial of a dentist who threatened to kill him, Gardiner said he was “aware members of parliament are increasingly being threatened and two of my colleagues have been murdered in the course of their work”.
However, he vowed not to let threats “reduce my accessibility to my constituents”.
Hoyle sought to stress this week how important the issue of MPs’ safety was to him. He made an emotional speech to parliament on Thursday saying he had given Labour a vote on its own Gaza ceasefire amendment because he felt a “duty of care” to MPs. “I never, ever want to go through a situation where I pick up a phone to find a friend, on whatever side, has been murdered by a terrorist,” said the Speaker. “I also do not want another attack on this House.”
UK Parliament said Commons officials worked closely with police forces, adding: “We cannot comment on MPs’ security arrangements or advice because we would not wish to compromise the safety of MPs, parliamentary staff or members of the public, but these are kept under continuous review.”
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Lord Walney is the government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption
The intimidation of MPs over their position on the Israel-Hamas conflict must stop. What is happening goes way beyond reasoned, impassioned debate and the right of citizens to petition their elected representatives.
Angry crowds surrounded the Palace of Westminster before this week’s votes, some chanting “intifada” and projecting an anti-Israel slogan onto the building itself.
MPs and their families are being targeted at home. Others have had their offices surrounded, occupied or vandalised. Streams of hateful correspondence are overwhelming parliamentary inboxes.
The spectacle of the Speaker of the House of Commons agreeing to change the usual procedures around votes to reduce the risk of violent reprisals against MPs must be the moment we wake up to this growing threat.
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The prospect of violence is not theoretical speculation. Two MPs have been murdered in recent years, Jo Cox (obituary) by a far-right extremist and Sir David Amess (obituary) by a violent Islamist. Last year, the government rated the likelihood of an assassination of a public figure as above 25 per cent, the highest score in its updated National Risk Register — meaning that it is among the most likely risks facing the country.
Aside from the danger to individuals, the chilling effect on our political system is obvious. The pool of people prepared to serve our democracy in elected politics, which is already too small and unrepresentative, will shrink further if they believe putting themselves forward will bring an inevitable physical risk to them and their loved ones, or simply endless angry vitriol. And the foundation of that democracy will be undermined if extremists believe they can coerce MPs into doing their bidding by menacing them.
There are a number of steps we must take to ensure this week’s debacle in parliament marks a turning point.
The police must be consistent in their enforcement of existing powers to stop MPs being besieged in their homes. Deterring this unacceptable behaviour should surely take precedence over officers’ fear of inflaming situations simply by enforcing the law.
The government should urgently consider new measures to protect the space around sites that are vital to the functioning of democracy, such as MPs’ offices, council chambers and parliament itself.
Law enforcement agencies and public bodies must not shy away from publicly identifying and confronting the unholy alliance of far-left groups and Islamist extremists who are driving much of this intimidation.
And all mainstream political parties should commit to never again allow parliament to be cowed by a mob outside its walls, or by fear of reprisals waiting for MPs in their constituencies.
That means the scales must fall from the eyes of those politicians of the centre or left who for too long have wrongly believed that proposals to tackle extreme protesters and the ideologies that drive them were the real threat to our liberal democracy, rather than being necessary and welcome steps to protect it.
