Three female MPs get bodyguards and cars amid growing safety fears in Parliament
Three female MPs have been given bodyguards and taxpayer-funded cars amid growing fears about their safety.
The backbenchers, who include Labour and Tory politicians, have had their security stepped up after risk assessments into the threats they face. It comes as MP safety is in the spotlight, with Rishi Sunak saying several had been "verbally threatened and physically, violently targeted".
The unnamed MPs have been provided with chauffeur-driven cars, the Sunday Times reports, after an assessment by the Ravec committee - which is responsible for the security of royals and senior politicians. A rising number of politicians have been assessed as being at high risk of attack.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has reportedly written to Mr Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt asking for more funding for MPs' protection. He wants improved security measures installed at their homes and constituency offices.
Labour's shadow international development minister, Lisa Nandy, said MPs were receiving threats "on multiple issues in multiple directions". Ms Nandy said: "I think there'll be many, many MPs who will have been in contact with the Speaker over the course of the last few months, and particularly in the last couple of weeks, as tensions were heightened - expressing concerns about their safety."
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A source told The Mirror members face a "wide variation of threats" from the far-right to pro-Palestine activists. They said although tensions around the Middle East crisis have put security in sharp focus, it's been a problem for a long time.
On Friday a fundraising dinner attended by Labour's Anneliese Dodds was disrupted by demonstrators chanting about the Middle East crisis. And Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting last week posted a picture of a "disgusting" image in his constituency which had been doctored to show him handcuffed with tape over his mouth.
Conservative minister Mike Freer has said he is standing down at the next election because of the threats he faces each day, while a protest outside the home of Tory MP Tobias Ellwood earlier this month sparked a police response.
Ms Nandy said: "We've had incidents over the last few months where people, including me, have been accosted on the streets and surrounded and filmed. Over the 14 years that I've been in Parliament, I've watched this get worse and worse."
The Government's political violence tsar has said police should have the powers to "disperse" protests around Parliament, MPs' offices and council chambers that they deem to be threatening. Baron Walney warned the "aggressive intimidation of MPs" by "mobs" was being mistaken for an "expression of democracy".
On Thursday Sir Lindsay apologised for breaking convention and allowing a Labour amendment on an SNP motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. He said he believed the move would prevent MPs being targeted.
Referencing the murder of Tory Sir David Amess in 2021, he said: "I will defend every member in this House. Both sides, I never ever want to go through a situation where I pick up a phone to find a friend, whatever side, has been murdered by terrorists."
Sir David was killed by terrorist Ali Harbi Ali at a surgery in Southend. He was the second MP to be murdered in a decade after Labour's Jo Cox was shot and stabbed by far-right extremist Thomas Alexander Mair in 2016.
Security minister Tom Tugendhat told the Sunday Telegraph: "We've been reviewing existing security measures for MPs in the wake of the murder of my colleague and friend Sir David Amess. The work we've done has led to substantive improvements to existing security measures at MPs' homes and offices, as well as new security measures such as the deployment of private protection officers."
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