Protests could be banned outside the offices of MPs
MINISTERS are considering plans to boost security for MPs to protect them from ‘mob rule’.
The Government is looking at introducing a ban on menacing protests outside politicians’ offices and improving security around Parliament to tackle attempts at intimidation.
The measures have been recommended as part of a review conducted by Lord Walney, an independent adviser on political violence and disruption.
A draft of the review was handed to the Home Office last month.
But it has been given new impetus by the case of justice minister Mike Freer who has faced death threats and an arson attack on his constituency office last year.
The Conservative MP revealed in the Daily Mail last week he will step down at the next general election because the threats have taken too great a toll on his family. Ministers have also become increasingly alarmed over the number of hostile demonstrations outside MPs’ offices and council buildings – particularly in the wake of the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
A Whitehall source said that failure to give more protection to MPs risked undermining democracy. ‘No one is talking about ending the right of people to make their point to their elected representatives,’ the source said.
‘But the way it is being done in some instances now is akin to mob rule. There is an implicit threat of violence and we are getting to the point where MPs are fearing for their lives and potentially feeling intimidated into voting a certain way. That has a really corrosive effect on democracy.’
Under the plans, powers to ban certain protests outside schools and vaccination clinics could be extended to cover MPs’ offices.
The so- called ‘expedited public spaces protection orders’ can be imposed to prevent harassment and can last for up to six months.
Ministers are also examining whether to tighten restrictions on protests outside Parliament during high-profile votes.
This follows a hostile pro-Palestine demonstration last year during a debate on whether to back calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. Hundreds of pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered outside the office of Labour’s Bethnal Green and Bow MP Rushanara Ali after she did not back a vote calling for the ceasefire. Protesters chanted ‘shame on you’ and ‘vote her out’.
Similar demonstrations have been held outside the offices of Labour MPs, including Sir Keir Starmer and Anneliese Dodds. She tried to reason with protesters from a first floor window as they shouted: ‘You don’t represent me.’
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner and shadow Treasury minister Jonathan Reynolds were confronted by screaming pro-Palestine protesters at an event in Stockport last month.
Ms Rayner told Sky News: ‘It did affect me and it has affected me since that incident... I was scared and my family are scared for me. And that’s why Mike [Freer] has taken the decision he’s taken.’
‘Fearing for their lives’