MPs ‘have changed votes after facing threats from public’
MPS have changed their votes because of threats from protesters, the security minister said yesterday.
Tom Tugendhat said ‘a threatening few have made their voices heard and made them fear for their safety and the safety of their families’.
Unveiling a £31million package to boost the security of MPs and councillors, he added: ‘That is more than a threat to us, it is threat to the very democratic principles and values that define who we are as a country.
‘Let me absolutely clear, they must fail. if we were to stumble or to succumb to these pressures we would not just see this House diminished, but our communities across the country would suffer.’
Referring to a pro-Palestine protest outside Parliament ahead of a debate on Gaza last Wednesday, Mr Tugendhat said: ‘Demonstrators threatened to force Parliament to lock its doors. What these thugs were actually asking us to do was to put our constituents second and to bow to those who were shouting loudest.’
Labour MP Andrew Gwynne said he had been subject to ‘serious death threats’ and revealed these had extended to his children. He added: ‘At one stage, we had to ensure that our teenage daughter was physically escorted to and from sixth-form college and she wasn’t allowed off campus at break times.’
Penny Mordaunt compared threats facing MPs to past actions by the irish Republican Army and insisted Westminster would not be cowed.
The Commons leader said: ‘This House will not, has not, and must not bow to terrorism or intimidation. What we are experiencing is a new form of an old story.
‘There are members who still sit on these benches who can remember being issued with mirrors to look under their cars in the morning. We are facing a new form of that old threat.
‘it failed then and it is going to fail now – but while we focus on ending that threat, we must not lose sight of the good in our country and what we can all do to help this situation.’
Rishi Sunak has told police chiefs to get tough with people trying to impose ‘mob rule’ by intimidating politicians.
But Tom Southerden of Amnesty international warned that fundamental rights were being eroded.
He said: ‘Talk of “mob rule” wildly exaggerates the issue and risks delegitimising the rights of peaceful protest.’
Police chiefs yesterday said pro-Palestine marches divert resources away from tackling violent crime and ‘put lives at risk’.
Donna Jones, chairman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, called on march organisers to stop the mass demonstrations, which have been staged across the country since the Hamas terror attacks on israel. ‘This has to stop,’ she said. ‘London is facing unprecedented levels of pressure coming from the largest scale protests the country has seen.
‘ Whilst the right to protest underpins every civilised community, so does the right of people to go about their lives peacefully. More than £25million has been spent on the protests... This is money that should be spent on preventing crimes, stopping knife attacks, drug gangs and violent crimes across the capital.
‘ The effects of these highly disruptive protests are losing the goodwill of the people of the country and putting lives at risk.’
Ms Jones said hate crimes had risen 147 per cent since October.