Minister vows to pass law on intimidation after ambush
A GOVERNMENT minister has revealed she was once chased through an underground car park by angry constituents, as she vowed to pass legislation to stop the intimidation of people in public life.
Chloe Smith, the minister for the constitution, is overseeing the passage of the Elections Bill – which will ban people who intimidate politicians or voters from standing for public office for five years.
She told The Daily Telegraph of being “alarmed” after she was pursued by angry constituents at night after a meeting in her Norwich constituency.
“I’ve been chased through a dark underground car park at night by people who thought that was the most sensible way to make their points, and I’ve been filmed against my will as part of that,” she said.
“It was an ambush out of the back of a meeting. And what was particularly sad about it was that I was actually accompanied by somebody who was, in fact, nothing to do with anything in politics – they bore the brunt of it as well.”
Ms Smith said abuse of politicians – especially women – has increased and she was “really pleased to have a chance to be able to make a contribution to doing something about that”.
In 2019 a man was sentenced to five years in prison for sending envelopes full of powder marked “Anthrax” to MPS, including Ms Smith.
The Elections Bill, which passed its second reading in the House of Commons this week, will introduce penalties for “electoral intimidation”, which can include the abuse of MPS.
The sanctions have been drawn up following an independent review on the intimidation of public figures.
It follows the death of Jo Cox, a Labour MP who was murdered in her constituency during the Brexit referendum campaign in 2016. Her sister, Kim Leadbeater, has since been elected in the seat. She made her maiden speech this week, paying tribute to Ms Cox.