A leading Labour politician has said there is no justification for MPs to be targeted in their homes and that public life is “drowning in hate and violence”.
Stella Creasy wrote in the Guardian that it was not acceptable to picket MPs in their home in response to an opinion piece by Just Stop Oil justifying the targeting of MPs.
The Labour and Cooperative MP for Walthamstow in north-east London said that harassment towards political representatives was increasingly normalised and “climate protesters picketing MPs’ houses is no more acceptable than the threats I have received from anti-abortion campaigners”.
She added: “All would argue their cause is vital and important that such tactics are merited – but to allow these behaviours to become the norm for any is therefore to enable it for all.”
In an opinion piece on Wednesday, Sarah Lunnon, the co-founder of Just Stop Oil, wrote that no Labour MPs had responded to a request to commit to resigning if after six months their leadership continued to implement Tory oil and gas projects. She added: “That’s why we are asking Labour MPs at their offices, in their constituencies, and at their homes to find their courage – and end the Tory oil and gas policies that are wrecking stable society.”
It was reported over the weekend that Just Stop Oil protesters were planning to occupy Labour MPs’ homes to push them on climate policies.
Creasy said the abuse she has faced as an MP, including rape and death threats and a brick through her office window, were indicative of a serious problem that risked undermining democracy. “Unless we take responsibility for addressing this, the outcome will not simply be that the loudest voices and largest wallets win: democracy will lose,” she said.
She added: “What we are seeing now is not simply a livelier version of public life. You cannot have free speech if 50% of a conversation is spent living in fear that saying no will mean a risk of harm to either yourself or someone you love.”
MPs are increasingly being targeted in their homes. In December, Just Stop Oil activists sang climate change-inspired Christmas carols outside Keir Starmer’s house, while Greenpeace protesters occupied the roof of Rishi Sunak’s home in Yorkshire last summer when he was away on holiday.
Creasy wrote: “Every MP has not just the shadow of the deaths of our beloved friends David Amess and Jo Cox looming in our thoughts, but also knowledge of the day-to-day violence our colleagues experience. I don’t need to agree with Tobias Ellwood or Mike Freer on policy to know that a line has been crossed when their private addresses and constituency offices have been targeted – and they are not alone.”
Brendan Cox, whose wife, Jo Cox, was killed in 2016 after an attack outside her constituency office by a rightwing terrorist, agreed with Creasy’s stance.
Cox said the reality was that in addition to the climate crisis, “there are so many issues that people think are the most important issues”, including Israel-Gaza, nuclear arms and abortion, and that if it becomes normal to target MPs at home it would happen more and more regularly.
He told the Guardian: “It’s really important that we keep our spirit of healthy, active and sometimes rambunctious democratic disagreement but when we start to target people in their homes it tips over into the risk of intimidation and it will make members of parliament more worried for their personal security.”
Cox also said allowing the targeting of MPs at home risked putting off the best people from running for parliament. “If we want to create a culture where we have really good MPs, particularly women and people from minority groups as well, if we want those people to stand for parliament then creating an environment which is hostile and full of intimidation means we’ll lose many of the best people and particularly certain groups of people who will be less up for that risk.”
