In addition to events in the Middle East, MPs cite coordinated mass lobbying campaigns, the difficulty of combating hate on social media and environmentalists targeting politicians' homes as reasons to fear.
Wednesday's tense vote came amid hundreds of protesters gathered outside parliament to peacefully demand a ceasefire in Gaza, with “cease now” extended to the iconic Elizabeth Tower, home of Big Ben.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which helped organize the protest, said the issue of MPs' security was “serious but cannot be used to shield MPs from democratic accountability”. It said it did not support protests outside MPs' homes, but warned against treating those who come to “peacefully lobby their MPs on Palestinian rights” as a “security threat”.
Philip Cowley, a professor of politics at Queen Mary in London, said the exposure of MPs was partly due to their “increased visibility and the ease with which threats can be used and the weaponization of MPs' voting records, even more so than it would have been before. seen as relatively low-stakes debates.”
A female Labor MP claimed there was now more awareness of abuse as men increasingly faced the nastiness women had long experienced in parliament. “Suddenly it's not a gender issue, it's a democracy issue,” she said.
Labor MP Dawn Butler, who closed her offices in 2020 after receiving racist abuse, admits the political discourse in Westminster at the moment is “quite combative and volatile, sometimes even toxic. We must keep ourselves safe. And the country needs to keep their politicians safe, that's important for our democracy.”
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