Security for all MPs

A man in his 20’s is being held in a South London Police Station for death threats to Nigel Farage on social media.

Source - Metropolitan Police

The more I read, the more I can understand why Nigel Farage was so concerned for his personal safety.

Being an MP, or a former one, has become a dangerous occupation in the Uk. In my opinion.

Especially if they have more extreme views. Or even Christian ones?

David Amess and Ann Widdecombe were both Catholics.

Anna Soubry said she always stood with her back against a wall at stations for fear of someone pushing her under a train. Yvette Coopers daughters said how much they worried about her safety. Stephen Timms was stabbed at a surgery but survived [we actually chatted to him at a Travel lodge where we were both staying; his stabbing didn't stop him getting on with his duties as an MP].

Out of interest I checked to see if either Jo Cox or David Amess had been abused online by their killers beforehand. Neither of them had. I think that is an additional concern for all politicians, because killers obviously don’t always reveal themselves before the fact.

Farage cannot have to both ways. He claims he needs added security because he doesn’t operate like other MPs. Instead of spending his time in Parliament and in his constituency, he choses, when he isn’t doing all his other jobs, to roam the country doing his showman act at tent rallies or campaigning in the constituencies of other MPs without having the courtesy of telling them of his plans. He and his Reform colleagues have been pulled up a number of times by the Lindsay Hoyle over this.

As I understand it, local county policing would have to cover his security wherever he decided to be that week and that would mean pulling stretched local resources from other areas of policing.

In short he is putting national party before the people he was elected to represent. If he did his job properly, he could have an Essex police detail to protect him at constituency level but they would have to log everything he did and everyone he met. For someone who is up to his neck in dodgy dealings with the convicted fraudster Cottrell at his side, I doubt he would like it.

On death threats, he went to the USA to complain bitterly about the Online Safety Act and how it was restricting freedom of speech using Lucy Connolly as an example. He seems to think that what she did was acceptable. Reform have made her into a cause célèbre A woman can use X to incite people to burn Muslims alive in their mosques but using X to make death threats against him is unacceptable. Neither is acceptable but again he wants it both ways.

More is emerging about the £5 million form Harborne. Now it seems it wasn’t about his physical security at all but about compensating him for loss of private earnings.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/15/farage-said-he-would-need-a-million-a-year-to-stand-as-mp-in-2024

Sarnia

I feel that if someone like Ann Widdecombe can be murdered then anyone can. At 78 and no longer an MP she was hardly a driving force in today's politics. If the police find that her murder was politically motivated then steps should be taken for the protection of Ministers and MP's.

She was outspoken, and was still speaking out.

I think this is a virtue (although i don't agree with her views, admire the courage of her convictions)

But there are some strange people out there & if something she said caught them on a nerve - she was such an easy target, I'm sure the perpetrateurs didn't expect to be held to account for this.

GrannyGravy13

A man in his 20’s is being held in a South London Police Station for death threats to Nigel Farage on social media.

Source - Metropolitan Police

Good news that this man who made virtual death threats was traced and arrested. All MPs know they need to report all the death threats they receive to the Police in this manner. Deaths threats sadly are not uncommon towards politicians.

The arrested person I understand has now been released on bail no doubt whilst their devices and phone/s are being examined by the police cybercrime team. Usual bail conditions in such a case- not to contact directly or indirectly the victim, to make all electronic devices available to the police for investigation and possible not to make any further malicious communications of any kind. A date would have been issued to attend court, usually three months hence. Any breach f bail results in further arrest and would be an aggravating factor to this current offence.

Court convictions of malicious communications towards MPs hopefully will covered by the press to act as a deterrent to others.

Cyber threats to all MPs are appropriately dealt with by the Police

Physical threats are covered by MP State funded security in relation to parliamentary and constituency work as an MP and I understand is being reviewed.

fancythat

Being an MP, or a former one, has become a dangerous occupation in the Uk. In my opinion.

Especially if they have more extreme views. Or even Christian ones?

David Amess and Ann Widdecombe were both Catholics.

Sadly it has.

Graphite

Farage cannot have to both ways. He claims he needs added security because he doesn’t operate like other MPs. Instead of spending his time in Parliament and in his constituency, he choses, when he isn’t doing all his other jobs, to roam the country doing his showman act at tent rallies or campaigning in the constituencies of other MPs without having the courtesy of telling them of his plans. He and his Reform colleagues have been pulled up a number of times by the Lindsay Hoyle over this.

As I understand it, local county policing would have to cover his security wherever he decided to be that week and that would mean pulling stretched local resources from other areas of policing.

In short he is putting national party before the people he was elected to represent. If he did his job properly, he could have an Essex police detail to protect him at constituency level but they would have to log everything he did and everyone he met. For someone who is up to his neck in dodgy dealings with the convicted fraudster Cottrell at his side, I doubt he would like it.

On death threats, he went to the USA to complain bitterly about the Online Safety Act and how it was restricting freedom of speech using Lucy Connolly as an example. He seems to think that what she did was acceptable. Reform have made her into a cause célèbre A woman can use X to incite people to burn Muslims alive in their mosques but using X to make death threats against him is unacceptable. Neither is acceptable but again he wants it both ways.

More is emerging about the £5 million form Harborne. Now it seems it wasn’t about his physical security at all but about compensating him for loss of private earnings.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/15/farage-said-he-would-need-a-million-a-year-to-stand-as-mp-in-2024

Glad physical security is being reviewed for allMPs and happy the police are on top of cyber threats and abuse.

Pleased to see someone arrested for threatening Farage.

Reform simply have to be honest, respect the rules and accept no one MP in parliament is any more important than another.

I hope all MPs are more vigilant and that they all report all and threats to the police.

Farage's reported death threat:

A Met spokesperson said: “On Tuesday 14 July a man in his 20s was arrested by Met officers on suspicion of sending threatening communications to a member of parliament.

“The arrest relates to a social media post from earlier this year, which was reported to police on Friday 8 May. After receiving the report, detectives submitted an application to a social media platform to gain access to the user’s contact information.

“After the relevant information was returned to detectives the man was arrested, with support from local Met officers, at a residential address in south London. After being held in police custody overnight, he has since been bailed pending further inquiries.”

The post on X, made at the time of the May elections, read: “I am going to shoot you in the head if you win.”

Just shows the police system works. Hopefully Farage reported all the other posts he has read on social media with similar threats against him to the police.

Agree Cossy. Just shows how toxic online communication has become- to all MPs.

Newspaper article today:

'Jess Phillips has received so many death threats she has to remind herself not to be blasé. One night she received more than 600 rape threats. In 2019, a man forced his way into her office. The same year a white supremacist sent her a picture of Jo Cox, her friend and fellow Labour MP who was murdered in 2016, accompanied with the message: “I will have you dealt with.”

“This is not academic to me; it is something I face every day,” says the MP for Birmingham Yardley. “You learn to cope with it, but it does cause terrible anxiety. For me, I feel guilty about the people who work for me, my kids, my family.”

The security and safety of all MPs – and the very real threats they face – has come back into sharp focus this week. A MP security review is timely and welcomed for all particularly women who receive so many, in such volume and on a daily basis like Jess Philips

One night she received more than 600 rape threats.

How can police possibly keep on top of all this?
Social media has very much added to their burden I would have thought.

Hope things get sorted out on security so that everyone is happy.

Look at the abuse she received during the election campaign..

fancythat

The more I read, the more I can understand why Nigel Farage was so concerned for his personal safety.

And now the man who killed Ann Widdecombe, has been charged with a plot against Mr Farage.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv1j3lgrl6gko

It’s good news that it is the same man who is responsible for both, rather than two different people. I see that the police have referred themselves though, in case the investigation into the Farage case fell short. It would be awful if it transpires that had they pursued all the evidence available then, Ann Widdecombe’s murder could have been prevented,

I cannot see why anyone would want to become an MP in these days.

Hopefully this man will be off our streets for the rest of his life.

I cannot see why anyone would want to become an MP in these days.

Me neither.

I think all MPs should (& indeed do) get a very similar level of security.

Perhaps all party leaders and ministers should have further heightened levels.

I find it completely abhorrent, however outspoken an MP might be, and however much I disagree with their politics and dislike the people, that -anyone should be subjected to threats of any kind.

I utterly condone physical violence and death threats particularly.

I don’t like some MPs or their behaviour or attitudes to others, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to threaten them.

Of course, I mean condemn!!!! Bad night sleeps sorry

On Farage turning down state funded security, claiming it was "inadequate' seems to be to be the behaviour of someone self entitled, divisive, seeking self publicity rather misguided ( why not simply top up to desired levels?) and self- sabotaging. Perhaps attitudes like that contribute to the political discourse paradigm shift?

You don't consider the language used in the expression of your opinion above may possibly contribute to a shift in political discourse?

I am surprised, if the man had both Farage and Anne in his sights, he didnt go for Farage first?
Perhaps he did for all I know.
But perhaps poor Anne was an easier target.