Abuse and threats aimed at MPs has hit record levels, warn police chiefs

ABUSE and threats aimed at politicians have reached “unprecedented” levels, police chiefs have revealed.

Crimes reported by MPs doubled last year to reach 342 and numbers are now rising even faster.

HOC/JESSICA TAYLOR

Women and ethnic minorities are particular targets for harassment and trolling, while a group of just 10 MPs bore the brunt of almost one in three offences.

Scotland Yard commissioner Cressida Dick told the Joint Committee on Human Rights today: “We do believe that the current context, in our policing time at least, is unprecedented.

“What we are seeing is polarised opinions having a big impact on the scale and impact of protest activity.”

Head of counter-terrorism policing Neil Basu said that 151 crimes were reported by MPs in 2017, then 342 last year, and 152 in the first four months of this year.

In addition more than 600 incidents – less serious than crimes – have been reported this year through Operation Bridger, a nationwide security scheme set up in the wake of the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox.

What we are seeing is polarised opinions having a big impact on the scale and impact of protest activity

Cressida Dick

Mr Basu said Brexit had been a “huge driver” in the abuse of MPs but offences were fairly evenly split towards those who backed Leave and those who support Remain.

Ms Dick admitted Met officers had been “too passive” when Remain-backing MP Anna Soubry was barracked as she tried to get into Parliament.

She said this year there has been a huge increase in the number of officers now in Westminster with 60 solely dedicated to monitoring protests.

Director of Public Prosecutions Max Hill QC told the same committee that the Crown Prosecution Service is now helping MPs and peers report the intimidation they receive to police.

He said: “We were sufficiently concerned about what’s been happening in recent months and years to take a very unusual step which was to issue guidance in March 2019.”

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The document tells politicians that freedom of speech and protest are important but that offensive, menacing and threatening behaviour can lead to prosecutions – and they must tell police

immediately if they are threatened with imminent violence.

The DPP revealed a dossier of 15 cases where trolls have been convicted of harassing MPs since the Referendum – with most of the abuse directed at Labour politicians.

However he also listed examples where charges were not brought, including one involving “foil swastikas left on constituency office doorstep”.

Mr Hill said the bill for security assistance for MPs has soared from £37,000 at the start of the decade to £4.2 million in 2017/18.

Committee chairman Harriet Harman MP said social media giants, like Facebook and Twitter, should pay towards the huge cost of the police response to abuse aimed at politicians.

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“Why should these multi-billion pound social media companies leave it to the taxpayer to pay the bill?” she asked.

The chiefs insisted they could not police the entire internet.

“It’s such a high volume, we cannot possibly enforce our way out of the problem,” said Ms Dick. “Prevention is the solution.”

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