The murder of British Labour MP Jo Cox last year by a far-right extremist brought into sharp and tragic focus the dangers and abuse faced by politicians globally. Despite the outpouring of public anger over the attack, there continue to be serious concerns about the safety and security of MPs in Britain, with a specialist police team set up last year to focus on crimes against parliamentarians. Figures obtained by British media earlier this year highlighted how serious threats continued to be made against politicians across the political spectrum, with over 50 complaints made in the first six months alone. An anonymous survey by BBC’s 5 Live earlier this year found an extraordinarily high level of concern among women MPs, with some raising concerns about children, constituency workers and their families.

While elections have always been fertile ground for heated debate, many noted the particularly aggressive tone adopted in the run-up to June 8, with many candidates facing personal attacks based on their political stance as well as racial or religious background. One Indian-origin Conservative candidate discovered racist graffiti about him on the wall of a polling station. Last week, Parliament’s Committee for Standards in Public Life launched an inquiry into the intimidation experienced by parliamentary candidates during the recent general election: MPs faced “intolerance and vitriolic behaviour”. The Committee’s chair warned that the situation could have reached a “tipping point”, with the level of abuse potentially putting people off getting involved in politics.

In a debate in Parliament on the abuse of MPs last week, Conservative MP Simon Hart said the party whip’s office received at least three credible threats to colleagues every week, including death threats and anti-Semitic and racist attacks, while the black Labour MP Diane Abbott highlighted the huge amount of abuse she’d received — online and beyond — during the election campaign. “I think the rise in the use of online media has turbocharged abuse. Thirty years ago, when I first became an MP, if someone wanted to attack an MP, they had to write a letter — usually in green ink — put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and walk to the post box. Now, they press a button and we read vile abuse that, 30 years ago, people would have been frightened even to write down,” she said.

Partisan turn

Social media may, of course, play part of the problem but can’t explain the sharp increase around the recent election, which partly reflected the highly emotionally charged nature of British politics. The debate has also swiftly taken a partisan turn, with both parties accusing the other side of fanning the flames. The Conservatives have attempted to argue that impassioned left-wing supporters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were responsible for some of the abuse, with the party’s leadership not doing enough to condemn it. Some criticism has also come from within the Labour Party — former prominent frontbencher Yvette Cooper accused some of her own party supporters of targeting those within the party they didn’t agree with. The Labour has ridiculed these claims, accusing the Conservatives of using “personal attack…smears and untruths”.

With little sign of political unity, it’s fortunate that the task of coming up with answers has fallen on the non-partisan Committee on Standards in Public Life, which is meant to report back to the government on short-and long-term fixes. With intolerance of political difference on the increase globally, it may well have lessons that could apply far beyond Britain’s shores.