Harriet Harman has called on Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak to agree on ensuring that the general election campaign is not marred by threats of physical violence to MPs.
The chair of the Commons standards committee, which oversees MPs’ conduct, has reiterated her call for a speaker’s conference committee to finally convene and address MPs’ safety or risk “colluding with the notion that MPs deserve to be denigrated or abused”.
“This needs to happen now,” Harman said. “All party leaders must meet to agree to ensure the campaign isn’t marred by threats. The responsibility for ensuring that MPs are able to get on with their work lies not with them as individuals or their party or the government. It lies with parliament.”
MPs across the political spectrum and the country have urged the government to reconsider deploying trained armed police at fearful MPs’ constituency offices, at least when the parliamentarian concerned is holding a surgery.
On Thursday the justice minister Mike Freer announced his intention to quit parliament after facing a “constant string of incidents” that he said included death threats, abuse and narrow escapes. On Christmas Eve his constituency office in Finchley and Golders Green was the target of a suspected arson attack.
In 2021, Freer escaped the MP David Amess’s murderer by a “stroke of luck”, as the killer had been to Freer’s constituency “several times, armed with the intention to harm”. Freer has been wearing stab vests and using panic alarms ever since.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, whose sister Jo Cox was killed in 2016, said: “Sadly it’s not at all surprising that Mike is stepping down. He’s not the first and I’m sure he won’t be the last MP or person in public life to step down as a result – partly or wholly – of threats, abuse, intimidation and actual violence.
“Elected people should take responsibility for their words and actions, the media and social media companies have a crucial role to play, particularly around misinformation and disinformation, and we also need a much more comprehensive programme of political education so people understand how the system works and who does what.
“Sadly, until everyone takes responsibility for the part they have to play in doing things differently then I worry that things won’t change. I hate being so negative, but since Jo’s murder I am struggling to see any improvement in our political discourse and culture.”
A senior Conservative MP who has faced death threats said: “The police are doing their best but response times at the moment are at an all-time low. Many of my colleagues are scared. They shouldn’t have to rely on alarms. Police presence could at least help act as a deterrent. There’s been a lot of talk from past home secretaries but not a lot of action.”
The veteran MP Margaret Hodge said what Freer had experienced was “terrible but not surprising”. She said: “The rise of social media has created an avalanche of threats. Anonymity on those platforms makes it vicious. My first death threat was in 1976 when a man came after me with an axe. When challenging the rise of the British National party (BNP), social media wasn’t present. So death threats came via emails, phone calls and letters.
“Since the 7 October attacks [in Israel], I’ve had security presence in my constituency, I’ve had to change my behaviour and switch up my work routes. Only this morning after Mike’s announcement, someone said they plan to remove Margaret Hodge from the earth. If MPs are scared and want police presence at their constituency office, they should get it.”
A UK parliament spokesperson said: “The ability for members and members’ staff to perform their parliamentary duties safely both on and off the estate is fundamental to our democracy. We work closely with the Met’s parliamentary liaison and investigations team and, through them, local police forces, with whom we share responsibility for the security of MPs and their staff away from the parliamentary estate.”
