Fury as Labour’s Harman says ‘pressured’ MPs should work from home
... as MPs to get £31m package to boost their security
HARRIET Harman sparked a furious backlash last night after suggesting MPs should be allowed to work from home to avoid intimidation by protesters.
Labour’s former deputy leader said a change to Commons rules to allow home working would enable MPs who feel ‘particularly under pressure’ to ‘still participate in the Commons, but not in a way that makes the feel vulnerable’.
The extraordinary intervention came as ministers prepared to release details of a £31 million package of measures to boost MPs’ security and protect them from intimidation, including the use of private bodyguards.
Ministers warned that Ms Harman’s plan move would amount to ‘giving in’ to intimidation by militant pro-Palestinian campaigners. Downing Street said she was ‘wrong’.
Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said implementing Ms Harman’s plan ‘would be to give in to those who threaten us – it would be entirely wrong to vacate our premises because of intimidation’.
No 10 said Rishi Sunak believed MPs should ‘not allow disruption or the stifling of democracy’.
The PM’s official spokesman said the intimidation of MPs seen in the runup to last week’s Commons debate on Gaza was ‘wrong’, but said it was ‘really important that we maintain Parliament as a place for free debate and expression of views’.
He added: ‘He wouldn’t want to see anything that restricts debate, MPs should be on the floor of the House, having robust debate expressing their views – that’s fundamental to our democracy. And the Prime Minister would never want to see anything that changes that. He has been very clear that we won’t allow anything to change that.’
Ms Harman, who as the longest serving female MP is known as the
‘We won’t restrict debate’
‘mother of the house’, insisted it was ‘not snowflakery’ to take action to protect MPs from intimidation.
She told LBC Radio that the Commons should look at reviving the ‘hybrid’ approach adopted during the pandemic when MPs were allowed to speak and vote from home.
‘I think we’ve got a process now that we experimented with during Covid, which we could actually bring that back in,’ she said. ‘So if somebody feels particularly under pressure, they can still participate in the Commons, but not in a way that makes them feel vulnerable.’
Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith rejected the idea, saying: ‘We need less working from home, not more of it. If people are threatening MPs outside their workplaces then you arrest them and throw them in the back of a police van. It’s not difficult.’ Labour declined to comment on Ms Harman’s proposal.
Her comments came as Security minister Tom Tugendhat unveils a £31 million package of measures to improve security for MPs, who have been increasingly targeted in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7.
‘Over the past few weeks we’ve seen disgraceful attempts to intimidate MPs and undermine our democratic processes,’ he said.
‘That behaviour is a threat to our democracy, and toxic for our society. We will do whatever is necessary to protect those who’ve been elected to represent their local communities, and to defend our democratic freedoms.’
WITHIN hours of escaping death in the IRA’s 1984 bombing of Brighton’s Grand Hotel, Margaret Thatcher gave a defiant and stirring speech.
‘All attempts to destroy democracy through terrorism,’ the then prime minister thundered, ‘will fail’.
Her determination to stand up for what was right in the face of intimidation stands in stark contrast to the cravenness of some of our current parliamentarians.
Sir Keir Starmer is a prime example. He aspires to lead Britain and yet capitulates to a pro-Palestinian mob, persuading the Speaker to overturn Commons procedures over fears that extremists might attack MPs who do not toe their line on Gaza.
Harriet Harman, a Labour grandee, is the latest to cave in to these fanatics. She makes the extraordinary suggestion that MPs should be allowed to work from home because of the risk of reprisals.
This would make them even more remote from the people they are paid to serve.
That isn’t democracy. It is placating a violent, intolerant rabble who seek to undermine the values and restrict the freedom for which Britain is renowned.
By proposing that MPs further remove themselves from public life, Ms Harman has underlined the scale of the threat posed by Muslim militants. In doing so, she is acknowledging the broader sentiment behind Lee Anderson’s unacceptable and unjustified remarks that London Mayor Sadiq Khan is ‘controlled’ by Islamists.
The point is that having spread hate and division on our streets with virtual impunity, pro-Palestine protesters are stepping up the campaign of harassment, abuse and intimidation to place pressure on politicians. This Islamist thuggery is weakening our democratic institutions when we most need them to be robust.
Yet each time it raises its ugly head, our leaders choose to ignore it. The political class (especially Labour), the BBC and the commentariat are more comfortable discussing ‘Islamophobia’ in the Tory party than confronting the danger Islamism poses to our society. That must change.
It is also time politicians displayed the courage the people they represent deserve, and show they will not be intimidated.
In the aftermath of the Brighton bombing, Mrs Thatcher said politicians should ‘never be stopped from going among the people by a few men of violence’.
‘Democracy would not be able to continue... that is what they want.’ Her words ring as true today as they did 40 years ago.