Security for all MPs

Sorry. Read that wrong. I thought she was a current MP.

But I take your point.

Yes.

Threats seem to have ramped up.

BBC Sport and Manchester City presenter Natalie Pike has spoken out publicly about her eight-month stalking ordeal.
Seems everyone will need security protection.

From Ricjard Tice. Today I think.

"A number of meetings have taken place with a number of people at a high level of Reform,' he told Radio 4's Today programme. 'Obviously things are kept under close and constant review with regards to the information and intel I now get on threats towards myself and others. It is a very significant shift in the approach taken by the authorities and we appreciate that.'

Mr Tice said that he was 'grateful' for Ms Mahmood's remarks and that she was 'right that it is an attack on anybody who goes into the world of politics'.

And he revealed how his own life had 'changed', including a security threat against him which happened near Parliament causing an immediate police response.

'It has had an impact. I now have security arrangements and one is constantly thinking when you are in any building 'do we know the back exit? Do we know the front exit?'. Those are the sorts of consequences you see on TV in films but it has actually become a reality.

'Those are some of the thoughts when one goes to events in the public arena and gives speeches and things – it changes things and that's just a consequence of the world we live in.'

He warned that the climate of abuse and threat against MPs was now deterring people from taking a role in public life and making democracy less accessible.

'I know from just talking to various other MPs that female MPs receive the most horrific torrent of abuse and misogynistic attacks.

'Not only is it wrong and horrendous in itself but of course the broader picture in politics and public life is that it acts as a deterrent to other good people who are thinking about making a difference in whatever walk of public life and are then taking a step back and are thinking "is that really what I want for my family?" That hits us all.'

He also said practical protection measures like the 'additional pretty large fences erected outside' Parliament were an 'unfortunate consequence' of the increased security threat against MPs."

I agree Cossy, heightened security needed for all party leaders and minsters.

Cossy

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.

Me too, and that includes Nigel Farage , Rupert Lowe and Zack Polanski.
I don’t like them but all MP’s and in particular the leaders of political parties need good security around them.

fancythat

The above is not very clear.
If someone does not understand what I have written I will try and help.

Basically speaking, do we think that all MPs should have the same level of security?

fwiw, I dont know how it all works at the moment.

I think they deserve to be safe, but so are others, e.g. teachers who are increasingly under attack by students and parents, hospital staff who are at risk from patients or prison staff and police, who are by the nature of their jobs, at risk from anyone with a grudge.
What sort of security would you propose fancythat?

I presume the police have found some evidence of his motive towards Farage in their searches of his computer. fancythat. It seems unlikely that it was purely a burglary, unless he had something specific in mind to steal, but it’s probably more likely that he intended to harm him?

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.

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?

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

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.

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

Me neither.

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.

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,

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.