9 hours ago
MPs have raised the alarm about a rise in abuse linked to debates around immigration, with some reporting levels of online harassment and death threats worse than during the Brexit years.
The warning came after a weekend of protests and counter protests at hotels used to house asylum seekers, with 15 people arrested on Saturday and demonstrations continuing into Sunday.
One female member of parliament, who asked to remain anonymous, said she had this weekend reported an online rape threat linked to her support for asylum seekers to the police.
Shipley’s Labour MP, Anna Dixon, said she had received death threats after the Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley, Robbie Moore, shared “misleading” information about her stance on grooming gangs.
“The lambasting we are all getting on social media and in the inbox is grim, from both sides,” said Tonia Antoniazzi, Labour’s MP for Gower. “It’s like we can’t do right for doing wrong and everything has become frighteningly polarised.
“Very few people see us as the individual humans that we are – especially women, mums, sisters, daughters – and it’s really changed since I came into the house. It’s worse than Brexit. In fact I could cope with that better.”
Another veteran Labour MP backed up her comments saying that, in their experience, hostility towards politicians was worse now than it had ever been.
The Green party co-leader and MP for Bristol Central, Carla Denyer, said the abuse she is sent had become “noticeably worse” in the last few months, “escalating in some cases to violent threats”, which she had reported to the police.
“As a leftwing and queer woman MP who speaks up frequently in support of refugees and LGBTIQA+ issues, I attract a lot of misogynist and homophobic abuse,” she said. “I wish I was surprised, but sadly it feels inevitable in the current political environment as the far right in the UK and across the world feels more and more emboldened and validated by other political parties dancing to their tune.”
She added: “It doesn’t matter how much you disagree with someone, threats of violence are never, ever appropriate. And they won’t silence me.”
Another MP said: “I’ve had some pretty unpleasant abuse. One [person] asked recently why I was hosting and supporting child rapists.” They added that the police had assured them those carrying out the abuse were “only a small online community”.
Newer MPs also reported feeling the impact of a recent rise in tensions over issues including grooming gangs, small boats and asylum seeker hotels.
“It’s horrendous,” said one MP who was elected last year. “I’m having to deal with daily lies about asylum seeker hotels and HMOs, which are entirely fabricated and are leading to huge anger and fear.”
Another female MP said: “I have received death threats in the last six months. The misogyny and the hate hasn’t really stopped since I was elected [last year], so it always feels like it has been pretty intense and is constant.”
Many of the MPs who voiced concerns asked to remain anonymous, fearing they would attract further abuse if they spoke publicly about the issue.
A speaker’s conference on the security of MPs found only just over half (52%) of those who responded to a survey felt safe in their role. The biggest concern reported by MPs was online abuse, followed by being recognised and abused in public.
“I’ve fought four general elections and feel things sank to all time low – so far – in this last 2024 one,” another Labour MP, Rupa Huq, said.
“The speaker’s conference, which I serve on, is investigating these issues and our witnesses have included Meta and X to the Electoral Commission, but their focus is during electoral campaigning or contests when, sadly, these issues rear their heads in between elections.”
On Saturday, the MP Anna Dixon said police were investigating death threats over her position on a national inquiry into grooming gangs after Moore claimed she had been “dismissing calls for an inquiry since day one”.
Dixon said she only voted against a Tory proposal for a national inquiry into grooming gangs because it included an amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill. Moore said he condemned any threats of violence, but insisted he had raised “legitimate concerns”.
Brendan Cox, the co-founder of the Together Coalition and the husband of the MP Jo Cox, who was murdered by a far-right terrorist in 2016, said mainstream politicians were fanning the flames of division. He said “difficult policy positions” needed to be debated more civilly.
“Threats to MPs don’t come from nowhere,” he said. “When mainstream politicians use violent or extreme rhetoric, dehumanisation of opponents increases and violence becomes more likely.”
On Sunday, protests continued against the use of hotels to house asylum seekers, with demonstrators decked in flags gathered outside the Castle Bromwich Holiday Inn in Birmingham and police in London standing guard outside the Britannia hotel in Canary Wharf.
This weekend there was also a campaign to put up union jack and Saint George’s cross flags across the country gather pace. According to the anti-extremist groups Hope Not Hate and Stand Up to Racism, the campaign called “operation raise the colours” has been partly organised by well-known far-right figures.
On Saturday, police in Basildon in Essex arrested a 33-year-old man on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence and conspiracy to commit criminal damage, after a video appeared to show racist abuse being shouted as red crosses were painted on the walls of a row of white buildings in the town.
In Stevenage, a man claimed he was attacked with a petrol bomb in the early hours of Saturday morning while hanging flags from lamp-posts. “It appears that the victim was struck by a glass bottle containing a lit rag and sustained a cut to his head,” Chf Insp Sarah Gilbertson of Hertfordshire police said, appealing for anyone with information to come forward.
Amid the febrile atmosphere, the government has set out plans to introduce a fast-track asylum appeals process, which will speed up the removal of people with no right to be in the UK. Labour has also pledged to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029.
“We cannot carry on with these completely unacceptable delays in appeals as a result of the system we have inherited, which mean that failed asylum seekers stay in the system for years on end at huge cost to the taxpayer,” said the home secretary, Yvette Cooper.
Dan Jarvis, the security minister and chair of the defending democracy taskforce, said: “Vile threats and the intimidation of those who serve in public life is utterly unacceptable.
“We are absolutely determined to ensure all elected representatives can carry out their democratic duties without suffering harassment and the defending democracy taskforce works to ensure a whole-of-government response to the threats to our democracy.
“While there will always be a place for robust debate, there will never be a place for fear in our democracy.”
