The UK government’s adviser on political violence said the growth of a “toxic, dangerous environment” in public life increased the risk of there being an assassination attempt on a British politician, as he called on the home secretary to launch an investigation into the intimidation of candidates in the election.
John Woodcock wrote to Yvette Cooper on Friday expressing his concern that a series of incidents in the election campaign could have been a “concerted campaign by extremists” that “underlined the gravity of the threat to our democracy”.
