Following the killing of Sir David Amess, concerns about the safety of politicians as they go about their day-to-day duties have been brought to the forefront once again.
The fatal attack, during Sir David’s constituency surgery held at a church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, came just over five years after the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox. Since then, MPs have reported a surge in daily threats sent online and occasionally spilling over into real world attacks.
According to figures released under a Freedom of Information request, police recorded 678 crimes against MPs up to 2020, including 582 reports of malicious communications. Nine were related to terrorism, while 46 were recorded as harassment.
The data comes from the Parliamentary Liason and Investigation Team, set up by the Metropolitan Police Service following the murder of Ms Cox in 2016.
In the past few days, amid calls for greater security for MPs and greater scrutiny for those using anonymous profiles online, other politicians have spoken about the abuse and death threats they have received.
Deputy prime minister, Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, Dominic Raab revealed on Monday he had received three threats “to life and limb” in two years that led to police intervention.
Meanwhile, shadow justice secretary David Lammy confirmed abuse and threats made against him since the start of last year had resulted in 13 crime reports and four intelligence reports.
On Saturday, just hours after Mr Amess was stabbed several times during a constituency surgery, a 76-year-old man was arrested by South Wales Police after sending a death threat to Labour MP Chris Bryant.
It is understood that he was targeted after encouraging people to be kinder to MPs they disagree with on social media.
Home secretary Priti Patel has ordered an immediate review of MPs’ security by police forces as a result of Mr Amess’ death.
While providing officers or guards for face-to-face meetings with constituents is among the strategies to have been touted by sources involved in the review so far, Ms Patel has said she is also considering a ban on social media anonymity to stop the “cruel and relentless” abuse of MPs and others online.
‘You take it in your stride’
In the past few years, however, a number of incidents reported by MPs have taken place in the physical world, while some have criticised the response to their concerns.
In 2018, foil swastikas were reportedly left at the office of former Dewsbury MP Paula Sheriff – who said she received up to 1,000 items of abuse a week during her time in office.
“The police took several weeks to actually view the CCTV that we had managed to obtain to establish if we could see who was actually doing it. Then they wrote to me to tell to me that the man who had been doing it had been trouble sleeping,” she told Sky News on Sunday.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy told Sky News that she was “accosted outside Parliament” by a group of pro-Brexit campaigners and said nothing was done by police.
“I had an experience of being accosted outside Parliament during a Leave rally about Brexit,” she said, adding that she was “surrounded”.
“When I complained to the parliamentary authorities I was told unfortunately people have strong views about Brexit and they are entitled to voice them,” the Wigan MP said.
Andrew Rosindell, the MP for Romford, said MPs were “a little bit” frightened following the attack because “if it could happen to David, it could happen to any MP”.
Detailing the experiences he has suffered since being an MP, he said: “My office was arsoned, my car was smashed up, someone tried to get into my house and injure me. I managed to stop them. All these things happened over the years but you take it in your stride because our priority is to get on with our job.”
Labour MP Luke Pollard’s office was vandalised twice within a week in 2019, including with the word “pedo”, which Mr Polland, who is gay, described as homophobic.
Former MP Anna Soubry was the subject of a torrent of abuse for her opposition to Brexit which resulted in two protestors being sentenced in 2019. The pair were arrested after hurling abuse at her outside parliament, including that she was a Nazi, a traitor and a fascist.
House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who has called for a “kinder” discourse in politics, said more had to be done to clamp down on anonymous online threats.
He said he had been a victim of threats made against him from “offshore” accounts.
“We should know who us putting up on social media, we should know the person behind it,” he told Times Radio. “Offshore accounts being used as well for threats and intimidation.”
He added: “When somebody threatened to put a bomb under my car just recently that was done from an offshore account.”
Labour MP Diane Abbott, who has said she would prefer to meet constituents behind a screen to prevent possible stabbing attacks following the death of Mr Amess, was found by Amnesty researchers to have received 45 per cent of all abusive tweets to female MPs in the six weeks before election day in 2017.